


mMm 




— 1> 

P.. 



'£M 



! 



y- 




Book Mr L 

GoRyrightN"_ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 



BY MISS MORLEY 

A Song of Life. 12mo $1.25 

Life and Love. 12mo 1.25 

The Bee People. 12rao 1.25 

The Honey-Makers. 12mo 1.25 

Little Mitchell. 12rao 1.25 

The Renewal of Life. 12mo . . . . 1.25 

Each fully illustrated 

A. C. McCLURG & CO. 

Chicago 




Attendants carrying Pomegranates and Locusts 

{From an Assyrian wall carving) 



GRASSHOPPER 
LAND 



BY 
MARGARET WARNER MORLEY 

AUTHOR OF "the BEE PEOPLE," "THE SONG OF LIFe/' "THE RENEWAL 
OF LIFE," ETC. 



ILLUSTRATED 




CHICAGO 
A. C. McCLURG & CO. 

1907 



LIBWARY of CONGRESS 

Two GoDies Received 

MAY 8 190r 

Cownfht Entry 

CUSS^(X XXC, No. 
COPY 8. ' 



•Meg 



COPVRIGHT BY 

A. C. McClurg & Co. 

1907 

Published May 4, 1907 
Entered at Stationers' Hall, London, England. 



TIIH UNMVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, US. A, 



Foreword 



THIS book is not for children. It is for their 
grandfathers and grandmothers who were 
once boys and girls in the country, and 
who may be in danger, after all these years, of 
forgetting about grasshoppers. If the children 
persist in reading so old a book they must not 
grumble at the long words, but quietly hunt them 
up in the dictionary, or else wait until they them- 
selves are grandfathers and grandmothers, when 
they will understand it all quite easily. 

M. W. M. 
Boston, January i, 1907. 



Contents 



Page 

I The Summer Idler and the Grasshopper . . 9 

II How They Jump 16 

III Concerning the Strange Ways of Legs ... 33 

IV The Gift of Wings 45 

V Song and Revelry 57 

VI Wonderful Possessions 71 

VII Molasses and Other Important Matters . . 84 

VIII Swords^ Stings, and Drills 99 

IX The Family Tree 106 

X The Successful Mantis no 

XI Harmless Frauds 124 

XII The Migratory Locust of the East . . . . 131 

XIII Whence They Come and Whither They Go . 157 

XIV Locusts as Food 173 

XV The Rocky Mountain Locust 198 

XVI The Diary of a Locust 218 

XVII Our Eastern Locusts 231 

XVIII Meadow Grasshoppers and Katydids . , . . 244 

XIX The Cricket 260 

Index 275 



Grasshopper Land 

I 

THE SUMMER IDLER AND THE GRASSHOPPER 

WHO does not love the pleasant 
Summertime? And to whom of 
us is it not related, along with 
sweet fern, ripe apples, and hack- 
matack, with the song of the grasshopper? 
Who has not lain on the ground and lis- 
tened, listened to the mysterious chirping of 
the hidden choir, or raced over the mead- 
ows in pursuit of the frantic fugitive ? And 
who has not, returning triumphant from 
the chase, soberly requested the captured 
one to make "molasses" on his finger? To 
the fortunate dweller in locust-free lands 
Summer would not quite be Summer with- 
out the shrill and pleasant hubbub of the 
grasshopper folk. 

Think of crossing a close-cut New Eng- 
land meadow late in August without stir- 
ring up a commotion of whirring wings and 
hopping legs ! Think of walking over the 
fields without hearing those odd little patter- 
ing sounds, like drops of rain, made by the 

9 



lO 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 



hoppers as they spring up on all 
sides of us ! Some of us pretend 
not to like them because they land 
on our clothes and tickle 
our necks, yet if we truly 
love the Summer how can 
we help having a 
friendly feeling for 
Summer's little 
guests? They are 
so alive and they 
seem so happy! 
Perhaps they are 
always happy, but 
like ourselves they 
are happiest 
when the sun 
shines. Once a 
^^^ captured 
^^ that had 
kept in 
house for sev- 
eral days during 
a cold storm was 
turned loose on the 
window-sill where the 
sun was shining hot. Did 
he hop away to surer free- 
dom as quickly as possible ? 
Not at all. The touch of 
the sun was so delicious 




one 

been 

the 



THE IDLER AND GRASSHOPPER ii 

that he instantly lay down on one side like a 
cat and stretched out his legs as far as he 
could get them. Thus he remained basking 
for an hour or more. It was a funny sight, 
and from his attitude we knew that he was 
sunning himself as surely as though he had 
been able to tell us so in words. 

That which endears the grasshopper to 
every one of us, old or young, is undoubt- 
edly his long hind legs. Without these he 
would be nobody, he could not have so jolly 
a name, he could not attract our pleased 
attention or startle us occasionally when we 
go walking. Minus his audacious legs, he 
w^ould seem to us little more than an em- 
bodied chirp, which we should listen to with 
slight interest. 

Every creature is distinguished in some 
way, — the butterfly for its bright colors, the 
bee for its honey, the ant for its wisdom; 
it remains for the grasshopper to jump into 
notice. 

Everybody knows how a grasshopper 
jumps, — at least every one thinks so; yet 
who of us really does know ? Perhaps we 
think it of no consequence ; yet if we fully 
understood it, there would be very little left 
to puzzle over in this very puzzling world of 
ours, and Archimedes himself would have 
to take off his hat to us. 

There is no doubt that the long hind legs 



12 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 



are somehow responsible for most of the 
grasshopper's acrobatic performances, as they 
may also be responsible for some of his 
other peculiarities ; for there are 
many forms of legs in the 
world, and not all, 
be it remembered, 
are mere stilts to 
walk on. The 
grasshopper, for in- 
stance, sometimes 
has them of such 
superior make that 
he can hear with 
them and sing with 
them, as well as 
outjump most of 
his rivals. Some 
insects have traps 
on their legs for catching other 
unwary and toothsome ones; 
some have legs that are tools 
for digging or paddles for 
swimming ; others again have 
none at all. Indeed, in the in- 
sect world legs are very curious, 
being, according to circumstances, much 
more or much less than our usual idea 
of those organs. Since there are so many 
varieties, it might seem a waste of time to 
try to understand any of them ; but Nature 




THE IDLER AND GRASSHOPPER 13 

is kind to our limited powers. She has so 
constructed the legs that, though they differ 
in details, they are essentially alike, and 
understanding one we understand all, and a 
great deal besides that has nothing to do 
with insects' legs, or with legs at all. In- 
deed, after we have spent a happy summer 
day examining ^ — somewhat lazily but yet 
carefully — the grasshoppers' lively jumpers, 
we may discover to our satisfaction that 
they are as interesting as the average novel, 
and they may be even as profitable. 

As we all know, the grasshopper is toler: 
ably supplied with legs, having six. Nor 
is this accidental, six being the appointed 
number throughout the insect world. For 
the grasshopper is an insect, as we know by 
this very sign of six legs, as well as in some 
other^'^ ys. We can see that he has these 
six, t we must not stop to ask why he has 
not Cigrit or four or twenty; if we do, we 
shall never get any farther, that being one 
of the apparently simple, but really difficult 
if not totally unanswerable, questions with 
regard to his grasshoppership. Enough that 
the insect world, when legs were in question, 
settled down on six as the one complete and 
perfect number for its uses and pleasures. 

Right here some one who has used his 
eyes to good purpose may object that the 
spider has eight; but that is allowable to 



14 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 



him, because in spite of appearances the 
spider is not an insect. If the truth were 
told about the talented fly-catcher, he is 
closer of kin to a lobster than to a grass- 
hopper. 

Naturally the best place to pry into the 
affairs of the grasshopper is the meadow 
where he lives ; and the pleasantest way for 
both ourselves and him is to settle down 
under a shady bush on the edge of a tangle 




of goldenrods and asters, where t^.e grass- 
hoppers are blissfully chirping. . is only 
necessary to keep still and wait ^ a little, 
when we shall surely be rewarded by the 
appearance full before our watchful eyes of 
one or more of the funny folk. Then, if in 
the course of waiting for one to come, or 
even while watching it after it has come, the 
warm sunshine and fragrant odors lull us to 
sleep, that too is beautiful ; for such sleep is 
the most refreshing sleep in the world, and 
presently we wake up and go on watching 
with a delicious sense of renewal, such as 



THE IDLER AND GRASSHOPPER 15 

is bestowed only by the magic touch of sun 
and open air. 

Resting thus at ease, we shall see much 
that has never been written in books, for 
something new is always sure to be happen- 
ing, no matter how much we have read or 
how much we think we know. Our grass- 
hopper is alive ; and in this lovely world 
what two living creatures are exactly alike 
in appearance or manners ? Surely not two 
grasshoppers ! 



11 



HOW THEY JUMP 

WE may lie on the warm earth and 
dream away the golden hours of 
Summer, certain that this too is 
work that pays 
whether the strenuous world V 
hurrying past our fern bank 
believes it or not. 

But if we would be busy as 
well as lazy, we can discover 
much that is delightful about 
our little neighbors among the 
grass stalks without making the 
slightest exertion. Only, when 
it comes to the final comprehen- 
sion of long hopping legs, we 
shall have to bestir ourselves 
and, catching a grasshopper, look 
earnestly at it in spite of protest- 
ing kicks and profuse molasses, 
carrying our investigations be- 
yond the legs even to the body 
of the creature. 

To those who declare it wasted 
time thus to scrutinize the details 




HOW THEY JUMP 17 

of a mere insect the grasshopper might 
reply : 

*' I too disapprove, but not on the same 
grounds. So far as being worthy of atten- 
tion is concerned, am I not alive ? And do 
you not know that by mere virtue of having 
life I am related, not only to all other living 
creatures, but to you, proud grasshopper, 
who call yourself the lord of creation ? 
Don't you understand that to know me is to 
know yourself? But let that pass, and open 
your fingers — I prefer my freedom to your 
enlightenment." 

The most noticeable thing about the body 
of our unwilling captive is that it is clearly 
divided into 
three parts, — 
the head; a 
short, thick, 

middle part, ^^^^^^^^^^/ 
known as the ^^ 

thorax or chest ; and a long, slender, jointed 
part or abdomen. 

Looking at the bulky thorax with atten- 
tion, it will presently dawn upon us why it 
is different from the rest of the body. All 
the legs and wings are grouped together and 
fastened to it, the legs to the under part, the 
wings above. They are grouped together 
here instead of being scattered the whole 
length of the body from head to tail, as is 




i8 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 



the case in the thousand-legged worms, — 
which of course are not insects, and in spite 
of their name are not worms. 

The thorax, then, carries all 
the organs of locomotion ; but 
the legs and wings must move 
quickly and with force, which 
they can do only by the play 
of large and strong muscles 
with adequate points of attach- 
ment. These also the thorax 
has to supply ; so it is very 
clearly a portion of the body 
specially strengthened 
to carry weight and 
afford resistance, — 
the engine-house, so 
to speak, for running 
the legs and wings. 
It is more than 
this, in truth, 
though this is its 



most prominent and individual use. 

We should expect, then, to find all insects 
that fly or run or jump well with a large and 
strong thorax. When we look out above 





HOW THEY JUMP 



19 



the heads of the grasshoppers to the butter- 
flies sailing in the fragrant air, they seem to 
be all wings, with no need of anything so 
earthy as a body ; yet when one flits our way 
and comes to rest on a near thistle-head, we 
see distinctly that it has a very powerful 
thorax, by far the largest and heaviest part 
of its framework. 

Now we may as well open our fingers and 
let our terrified captive leap to freedom, 
while we lie back and ponder a little on legs 
in general. These we know, when used for 
walking or jumping, are always long and 
firm, — levers, in short, 
by which the body can 
be moved along. In 
order that the creature 
may take the 



various positions 
necessary to a 
pleasant life, these 
levers must be 
jointed. Now legs 
are legs the world 
over, whether they 
belong to a grass- 
hopper, a kangaroo, 
or a renowned and profound philosopher; 
and though they may differ in details, those 
of the grasshopper, for instance, seeming 
very much out of place on the kangaroo, 




20, GRASSHOPPER LAND 

and hopelessly ruining the dignity of the 
philosopher, yet essentially there is no dif- 
ference. All are levers, all are jointed, and 
all are worked by muscles, the amount of 
motion in the leg itself depending of course 
upon the joints, of which there must be just 
enough, and not too many, for a successful 
career in this rather dangerous world. 

Leaving abstractions now and returning 
to the active companion of our summer 
hour, whose legs are the real object of in- 
terest, let us try to discover wherein his 
great superiority as a jumper lies. First, 
we shall need to catch the largest one we 
can find ; and as the long legs sprawl and 
kick we discover that they are fastened to 
the thorax by a double joint, an arrangement 
that gives them great freedom of motion at 
that point, such as we have at our own 
shoulder and hip joints. Below this very 
movable joint is the long femur, as it is 

called, that being also the name 
\\ of our own thigh bone, the 

i!^^""'^^^ largest and strongest section 

of the whole leg. Jointed to 

it is the tibia, bearing the 
j^^^f^-^T^^ same name as our shin bone, 
\ and being almost or quite as 

long as the femur; but in the 
grasshopper it is exceedingly slender, and 
often beset with stiff prickles along its 




HOW THEY JUMP 21 

whole length. To the outer end of the 
tibia is attached the pretty little foot, which 
is made of several segments loosely jointed 
together. 

It is now only necessary to supply these 
various sections with strong muscles, that 
we may understand, at least in a dim way, 
how the legs work to make the grasshoppers 
what they are, — the best high jumpers in 
the insect world. 

When w^e ourselves wish to jump we can- 
not do so until we have first bent the knees, 
which we suddenly straighten, making them 
play the part of a stiff spring. But our 
jumping is nothing to be particularly proud 
of ; for not even by supplying ourselves with 
artificial joints in the form of a spring-board 
can we jump as far in proportion to our size 
as the lively grasshopper can with his un- 
aided legs. Though his leg, so far as jump- 
ing is concerned, is built exactly like ours and 
is used in the same way, it is much more 
slender and has relatively stronger muscles. 
When about to jump, he draws the tibia 
close to the femur, very much closer than 
we can possibly draw ours, thus securing 
force at the moment of release. In the 
summer meadow it is easy to find one ready 
to spring. There ! suddenly, very suddenly, 
— for the result depends entirely upon the 
quickness with which the release is made, — 



22 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

the leg is straightened and off goes the 
grasshopper. 

It would seem that his jumping is not so 
mysterious a feat after all, and that we our- 
selves need only be able to double up our 
legs a little closer and have stronger muscles 
in order to emulate him. 

Perhaps, however, this is not quite all. 
In making a y good jump 

the balancing of /^ the body has 

to be taken into .^(^ account. We 

see that the 
heavy parts 
of the grass- 
hopper are all 
collected together upon the thorax, 
which is situated, not at one end of the 
body, but about in the middle. It is not the 
front legs, up near the head, that 
are enlarged for 
jumping, but the 
hind ones, near 
the centre of 
gravity, with the 
abdomen to 
balance the head and front part of the thorax. 
Now, the frog is a good jumper, and in 
passing we may as well recall that his leg 
mechanism is essentially like that of the rest 
of the world, — only his legs are fastened at 
the rear of the body, and so he is not a high 





HOW THEY JUMP 23 

jumper, that is, not as compared with the 
grasshopper. He is overweighted in front, 
and if he yielded to ambition and soared 
high, he might land on the end of his nose. 
No such danger to the grasshopper, whose 
abdomen acts as a rudder to steady him in 
his aerial voyages. So, while we lack the 
power of using our legs as well as the grass- 
hoppers and frogs use theirs, we are also 
very poorly balanced for jumping, even as 
compared with the frog; for when he jumps 
he has only to thrust his body ahead of him, 
as it were, while we have to maintain ours 
in that upright position of which man is so 
justly proud, but which undoubtedly increases 
the air friction when he undertakes to jump 
or run. 

However, let us not despond, for if we 
cannot jump as well as the frog, neither can 
he invent a balloon, calculate the distance of 
the sun, nor play football. 

Levers well placed are a noble endowment, 
no doubt; but, as so often happens in the 
affairs of this humorous world, even the 
very efficient grasshopper legs are absolutely 
dependent upon a mere trifle. Have you 
noticed those two little spines at the end 
of the tibia ? See how they touch the 
ground as the grasshopper walks. Insig- 
nificant as they seem, they make or mar a 
good jump. At the moment of leaping, the 



24 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 



end of the tibia presses hard on the ground, 
or whatever surface the grasshopper happens 
to be resting upon ; now, if he should slip, 
you can readily see that the jump would be 
a failure ; it is also evident that the two 
sharp prongs growing from the extreme end 
of each tibia act as braces to prevent slip- 
ping. If you have ever happened to see 
a grasshopper on a very smooth floor, or, 
better yet, on a horizontal plate of glass, 
you will not soon forget his ludicrous and 
futile efforts at hopping. At the moment 
of the spring the little bracing prongs slip 
on the smooth surface, and the confusion in 
the mind of the grasshopper as to what is the 
matter must be very complete ; for Nature 
never presents her little subjects of the 
Summertime with any such problem as an 
extensive slippery surface. 

Although the grasshopper does not wish to 
have his legs slip from under him when he 

attempts 
to jump, 
he oft- 
en flings 
them out 
without 
the slight- 
est inten- 
t i o n of 
moving: 




HOW THEY JUMP 25 

his own body, but solely for the satisfaction 
of kicking some other insect; and powerful 
kickers these long hind legs are, able to send 
an intruder heels over head in a most convinc- 
ing manner. The first thing the grasshopper 
does when disturbed, if he cannot escape, 
is to let fly his legs violently, but with a 
certain air of dignity that is most edifying. 

Besides the bracing prongs at the end of 
each tibia, there are other spines upon it. 
Indeed, it is a very bristly affair, having a 
double row of spines up its back ; and when 
we come to inquire what they are for, we 
have to admit that perhaps we do not 
know. Certain other insects, as the bees, 
use the spines and hairs on their legs as 
combs and brushes with which to keep the 
body clean, but that is not, at least to any 
extent, the grasshopper's custom. Possibly 
if we were to peer at him just before he is 
hatched, while he is still doubled up in the 
delicate eggshell, we might find a solution 
to the puzzle, for he so lies that the backs 
of his legs press against the eggshell, and 
when the time for breaking it arrives the 
prickles, even though not yet very hard, may 
be of assistance in helping him to break out 
of his imprisonment. 

Then again, may not these little prickles 
have a psychological significance, so to speak, 
expressing a certain prickly quality in his 



26 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

nature which breaks out in his legs, just as 
there is a power in him to elaborate certain 
bright colors — an outburst as it were of 
grasshopper vitality? However this may be, 
spines the grasshopper has, some species 
being much richer in them than others. 
Feet too are his, as one easily sees, — long, 
narrow, three-or-four-jointed, flexible little 
things, very prettily finished off with two 
pairs of hooks. If we can get close enough 
in our meadow idling, we shall see them 
planted flat or daintily curled about a grass 
stem, the sharp hooks, though invisible at 
such long range, sturdily grasping the tender 
bark. 

But in the foot the treasure that we cannot 
see is the flat little disk hidden between the 
toes, as we might call the hooks. It is the 
same as that in the fly's foot, by means of 
which the fly can carelessly walk upside 
down on the ceiling and travel up a pane 
of glass. Many grasshoppers are not so 
fortunate as the fly in this respect, their 
genius expending itself otherwise than on 
the soles of their feet. If we put one of these 
in a glass jar, he will try, but try in vain, 
to climb the perpendicular toboggan-slide. 
The best he can do is to stand on tiptoe, his 
long hind legs stretched to their utmost, and 
his short fore legs pathetically reaching up 
against the slippery surface. 



HOW THEY JUMP 



27 



By far the best way to understand the 
grasshopper's foot-pad is to call upon a fly ; 
for, though some 
grasshoppers 
are quite able 
to exhibit foot- 
pads of an ex- 
cellency that 
allows the for- 
tunate possessor 
to view life from 
a comfortable 
upside-down atti- 
tude on a smooth 
ceiling, others 
are not. Flies, 
however, always 
appear with care- 
fully padded feet, 
otherwise we 
should be de- 
prived of that 
familiar if not 
welcome sight, 
of ebony experts 
promenading 
over our clean 
window-panes. 

We should have to submit the fly to the 
trying ordeal of having his foot examined 
under the microscope, if we were bent upon 




28 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

really seeing his mysterious cushions ; but, 
after all, they would prove to be only little 
soft, white, rounded disks, their virtue re- 
siding in the way they are used rather than 
in any visible peculiarity. For he has a way 
of planting them down in so close contact 
with a smooth surface that the air beneath is 
quite squeezed out, when he is held in place 
by the pressure outside. 

This same device is used by boys for a 
less important purpose, they little guessing 
that their clever trick was the common prop- 
erty of every fly, large or small, black, green, 
blue, brown, or yellow, long before *' suckers " 
had ever been heard of. Every boy, old or 
young, knows that a sucker is a circular 
piece of leather with a string fastened to the 
centre. This the boy thor- 
oughly soaks and presses 
firmly against the pavement, 
then he invites another boy to 
take hold of the string and 
pull it loose. You remember 
he can't, the air outside hold- 
ing it down with a grim 
pressure of fifteen pounds 
to the square inch. That 
seems a terrible weight on so delicate a thing 
as a fly's foot, but it does not distress him. 
It is no wonder he can go to sleep with a calm 
and trustful mind, upside down on a ceiling. 




HOW THEY JUMP 29 

All he has to do is to fit his feet properly 
and let the air pin him fast. When he 
wishes to change his place, he can raise one 
edge of the disk and let in the air; then his 
foot is free, and it becomes safely attached 
the moment he sets it down again. 

Who can help admiring the unconscious 
philosopher, troublesome as he is ? Even 
the hairs that fringe his foot-pads, so small 
as to be invisible to the naked eye, are mar- 
vellous things, each one being able to exude 
a viscid drop, which upon occasion actually 
glues the foot fast and is strong enough to 
hold the fly in place, though he can easily 
pull loose when he so desires. 

Why should he be supplied with two such 
different and effective means to the same 
end? That question who can answer? The 
truth is, all this matter of the fly's foot-disk, 
despite much speculation and vigorous as- 
sertion, remains just a little misty, for in a 
case like this it is easier to theorize than to 
prove. In order truly to explain this slight 
matter of standing upside down on a pane of 
glass one would have to be well educated in 
a num.ber of subjects, including mechanics, 
chemistry, the laws of attraction and repul- 
sion, the secret of life, universal psychology, 
— indeed, in all he would need to know on 
this earth, excepting how to paint pictures 
and to tell the truth. 



30 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

Although some grasshoppers are not dis- 
tinguished for the excellence of their foot- 
pads, yet others — as, for instance, those small 
brown ones that hop about the autumn 
meadows — have not only a good pad between 
the toes, but similar little cushions on the 
soles of all the other foot-segments. These 
can be seen most beautifully as the owner of 
them walks dejectedly up the sides of a fruit 
jar in which he has been imprisoned. 

No one who has spent a profitable sum- 
mer day lying under the bushes can doubt 
that the grasshopper is a first-rate climber, 
whether he can walk on glass or not. He 
can go up a weed like a monkey up a rope, 
and, like the woodpecker, he has faith that 
out of sight is out of mind, often slipping 
around to the other side of a stem when 
he sees some one coming, to save himself 
the trouble of going farther. 

He does not care inordinately about his 
personal appearance, though he does make 
an occasional effort to keep his face and 
hands clean ; yet there is a great difference 
among grasshoppers in this respect, those of 
some species appearing to be as fond of 
toilet-making as a fly. Once upon a time 
a number of very large ones, natives of a 
European country, having been unfeelingly 
incarcerated in a glass jar, passed the weary 
hours in an endless round of toilet-making, 



HOW THEY JUMP 



31 



to the delight of their heartless jailer. 
Slowly drawing up a foot with an expression 

of great serious- 
ness, the grass- 
hopper would 
pass it 
through 



^!!L«r' 




M,^^^ 



his mouth several times, apparently nibbling 
at it as one often sees a dog nibble at a flea. 
One after another the feet were thus treated, 
the funniest part of the performance being 
the way in which the long hind legs were 
doubled up and thrust forward within reach 
of the ministering mouth. These grass- 
hoppers cleaned their faces almost as assid- 
uously as their legs, and one watching them 
might have imagined they had been taking 
lessons from a well-bred tabby cat who, first 
licking her paws, passes them several times 
over head, neck, and eyes ; only, no cat ever 
attained the expression of solemnity that sat 



32 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

upon the comely countenance of the grass- 
hopper as it slowly and rhythmically 
performed the oft-repeated rite, irresistibly 
suggesting to the beholder that an important 
act of the universe was now in progress. 



Ill 

CONCERNING THE STRANGE WAYS OF LEGS 

DOWN in the old pasture, across the 
brook where the sweet-flag grows, 
is a good place to steal away when 
one wants more grasshopper and 
less human society for a little while. Here 
one can lie on his back and smell the sweet-" 
fern while he shakes off the cares of state 
and reflects upon the graver fact that he is 
now acquainted with the structure of all the 
grasshopper's legs ; for though the front 
pair are smaller than the great jumpers, 
they have the same parts, arranged in ex- 
actly the same way. This is also true of the 
middle pair. Moreover, one now understands 
the general structure of the legs of all insects, 
for all are modelled after this one plan. 

As to the action of the legs, if we could 
understand — which nobody does quite — 
just how they are moved and the force that 
moves them, we should understand most of 
the machinery which man has made to do 
his work, and we should be able to foresee 
much that is yet to be born from his ever 
busy brain. Yea, more; it being midsummer 

3 



34 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 



in or, as we 



and the old pasture a perfectly safe confidant, 
we may allow ourselves the luxury of dream- 

the dear earth 
looking into the 
sky, that if we 
could under- 
stand those 
still mysterious 
grass hopper 
legs, we should 
understand a 
great deal yet 
unknown con- 
cerning the 
motions of our 
earth itself, and 
of the sun, and 
of the very stars. 
Getting back to earth 
as well as we can, and 
pursuing a more lowly 
train of thought, we 
remember that, in spite 
of their general similar- 
ity, there are many 
interesting varieties of 
legs among the insects. 
Even the grasshopper's 
three pairs are not quite 
alike, the front ones 
being small, with none of the segments 




CONCERNING LEGS 35 

specially enlarged. They point forward 
too, and the grasshopper uses them to pull 
the body, while the long hind legs point 
backward and push it. The middle legs are 
larger than the front ones and assist in both 
pulling and pushing, each pair having its 
own special work to do. 

In most insects — thinking now of the 
butterflies, beetles, and all the rest — the 
hind legs are not much, if any, larger than 
the others, being used simply for walking 
and clinging. We know why they are modi- 
fied in the grasshoppers and in their cousins 
the katydids and crickets, and are prepared for 
any sort of variation in any of the legs. So 
we are not surprised when we find the fore 
legs instead of the hind ones modified in 
that remarkable relative of the grasshopper, 
the praying mantis. 

No one has lived in the South without 
seeing many a mantis, or '' snake-doctor," as 
it is more familiarly called, and no one hav- 
ing once seen him could forget the enormous 
front legs which he thrusts so obtrusively 
forward. As in the hind legs of the grass- 
hopper, so here, it is the femur and tibia that 
are specially developed ; but no one could 
imagine for a moment that this bloodthirsty 
cousin to a grasshopper ever did anything 
so innocent as hop with these highly special- 
ized legs. Hop indeed ! He stands as still 



36 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 



as a stick among the leaves, with his thorax 
raised and his front legs crooked in a most 

sanctimonious 
manner, an atti- 
tude which has 
given him his 
name of praying 
mantis, though 
he has others 
much better de- 
served. 

Standing thus, 
he suddenly 
grabs at some 
unsuspecting 
insect out for its 
breakfast or on 
other business 
bent, and catch- 
ing the luckless 
one in the crook 
of his elbow, 
shuts it tight, 
the leg- 
now for 
another 
purpose than 
leaping joyously 
through the air. 
From this cruel 
trap, which is beset with teeth, the captive 




using 
spring 
quite 



CONCERNING LEGS 37 

cannot escape, but is quickly consumed by its 
insatiable captor, whose appetite is in pro- 
portion to his equipment for satisfying the 
cravings of hunger. The leg-springs here 
have evidently a very decided use. 

Yet though these traps are such formidable- 
looking objects, we see instantly that they are 
only legs modified by the excessive growth 
of some of the segments, and as we look at 
the mantis we cannot help noticing that its 
whole form has undergone a transformation, 
as was to be expected. Its thorax is no 
longer short and thick, for it cannot hop 
and hates to fly. It is not fond even of 
walking, though it can get out of the way 
fast enough when we try to catch it. 

In spite of the long and slender thorax, — 
almost as long as the abdomen, — it is any- 
thing but a graceful creature, though one 
must admit that it has a certain dignity 
of mien which accords well with its fierce 
nature. 

Legs modified to serve some special use 
are a favorite device throughout the insect 
world, and there readily come to the mind of 
every country child, whether he be now 
eighty or eight, those outlandish black 
beetles that shared the best swimming holes 
in the pond with him. Very likely he had 
some superstition as to certain liberties they 
would take with his toes, though his fear of 



38 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

them was probably not strong enough to 
make him obey orders about going into that 
swimming hole. And very likely too, his 
curiosity did not carry him to the point of 
catching them and discovering that their 
paddles were in reality legs, though scarcely 
recognizable as such, being flattened and 
broadened to an incredible degree to fit 
them for swimmJng. 

Then there are the tumblebugs that roll 
balls about the pasture to the endless di- 
version of those who go to fetch the cows. 
These coal-black, thick-set ball-rollers that 
we call tumblebugs, regardless of the fact 
that they are not bugs at all, have the tibia 
of the fore legs modified into flat trowels 
excellent for digging a hole in the ground or 
patting a ball into shape. But, not satisfied 
with this, they have carried their fervor for 
modification to the point of changing their 
very heads into spades, both head and thorax 
being flattened and sharpened on the edges 
into an excellent tool to assist in cutting 
out the precious ball ; and many a boy has 
forgotten the waiting woodpile in the less 
strenuous occupation of w^atching a tumble- 
bug spading away at an obdurate mass of 
dirt with a complete set of tools that no 
neighbor had ever tried to borrow. 

It would be hardly fair to the tumblebug 
to leave him without explaining, for the 



CONCERNING LEGS 



39 



benefit of those who may not be so fortunate 
as to have made his acquaintance in early life, 
that he does not devote his days and the 
strength of his body to the 
task of making balls for the 




mere sake of doing so, also that he is not 
always coal black. Tumblebugs there are 
of a most brilliant metallic purple or green, 
though our commonest frequenter of the 
pastures is black. Its reason for making 
and rolling balls is a very worthy one, the 
ball being trundled away, sometimes a long 
distance, to a safe place, where it is buried 
in the ground or in a rubbish heap and made 
the receptacle of the egg that is to hatch into 
next year's tumblebug. 

The ball, being large and heavy, is moved 
in an ingenious manner worthy of a tumble- 
bug, who, standing on his hands with the 
hind legs firmly grasping the ball, runs back- 
wards, thus pushing it along. Naturally it 
is the female that attaches the liveliest inter- 
est to ball-rolling, though in justice it must 



40 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

be added that her loyal mate often puts his 
shoulder to the wheel with most praise- 
worthy zeal. 

Although our tumblebug is a humble 
enough insect, there is one which has ac- 
quired great renown, for the sacred scarab 
of Egypt, so often found in tombs and now 
everywhere to be seen in our museums and 
in the necklaces our girls love to wear, is 
neither more nor less than the effigy of a 
tumblebug cut in stone or in gems. To the 
imaginative Egyptian this little beetle and 
its ball symbolized the earth and the power 
that moves it, and so he beautifully im- 
mortalized the large and handsome tumble- 
bug whose destiny it was to be born on the 
banks of the Nile. 

The manner in which the tumblebug is 
modified to overcome the difficulties of life 
is exactly opposite to that of the mantis, he 
appearing at first sight scarcely to possess 
thorax and abdomen. A more careful ex- 
amination shows his structure to be that of 
all insects, only his body is pushed together 
and solidified, as it were, instead of being 
lengthened. 

That insects' legs should be modified for 
grasping, digging, modelling, or swimming- 
seems reasonable, but when we find them 
equipped with ears to hear with, that does 
seem transcending the prerogatives of legs. 



CONCERNING LEGS 41 

When, however, we ask ourselves in all 
seriousness just what ears are, the grass- 
hopper's disposition of them ceases to be 
surprising. 

If we look at the outside of the upper part 
of the tibia on a green meadow grasshopper, 
we can easily find a small, flat, roundish 
membrane which has the power of vibrating 
to sound waves, while back of it is a nerve 
to conduct the impressions of sound to a 
very simple but yet adequate nerve-centre, 
which does duty as a brain. What more 
than this do our own ears possess that is 
essential to hearing? For we all know that 
the outer ear, that projecting shell of cartilage 
which in the exigencies of life occasionally 
gets pulled for our admonition or in jest, is 
not necessary to hearing. It helps to gather 
the sound w^aves, — that is all. It is, in short, 
a sort of natural ear trumpet, which is much 
better developed in the donkey than in man. 
Just back of the vibrating membrane, in the 
insects as well as in ourselves, are structures 
for reinforcing the sound waves, but the 
essential parts of any ear are the vibrating 
membrane (in man called the eardrum), the 
conducting nerve, and the receiving brain. 

Of course, so far as the use of the ear 
itself is concerned, it does not in the least 
matter on what part of the body the vibrat- 
ing membrane is located, so long as it i^ 



42 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 




^ 



sufficiently ex- 
posed. Though 
the structure of 
our body and our 
mode of life have made it best for 
our ears to be just where they 
are, it does not follow that other 
creatures should have their ears 
on the sides of their heads ; and 
in fact many do not. All the 
i higher animals, including the 
) birds and the fishes, have the ears 
placed like ours, but the lower 
forms of life find it more convenient to have 
them on the legs or some other part of the 
body, — anywhere, it would seem, rather 
than on the head. Why this is so could be 
understood in part if one had ten or twenty 
years to devote to the study of biology, and 
particularly to that branch of it known as 
comparative embryology. Of course, at the 
end of that time we should know much more 
than why insects hear with their legs, but at 
present we shall have to be content wdth the 
knowledge that it is so. One thing, however, 
we can see : the head of the insect is small, 
and is so made that it could not well carry 
an effective hearing-membrane. Why it has 
this small head is one of the things we 
should understand a little better after our 
twenty years of study. But since it does 



CONCERNING LEGS 43 

have it, the next best thing is for it to dis- 
pose of its ears in the most convenient and 
satisfactory manner elsewhere. For as legs 
are legs the world over, so ears are ears, no 
matter on what part of the body they may 
be found. 

Certain of the grasshoppers have the hear- 
ing organs on the tibiae, but others have 
them on the upper segment of the abdomen 
instead. Fortunately for them, they do not 
wear clothes, or their ears would be under 
their belts. Many insects besides grass- 
hoppers have their ears on their legs. Indeed, 
this is a favorite way of carrying ears in 
insectdom. But it must not be supposed 
that the fore leg alone or the tibia alone is 
thus distinguished. In some insects the 
other legs and the other segments share the 
honor, particularly the femur, and certain 
beetles are not above wearing their ears on 
their feet. 

Some people deny that insects can hear, 
but we may be pretty sure that whoever can 
make a noise can hear a noise, and there are 
some very elaborate vocal instruments in the 
insect world. 

Why should this be, if friend and loved 
one, as well as the musician himself, are 
deaf to the joyous racket? Is it not an 
interesting and significant fact that those 
insects which make no noise have poorly 



44 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

developed ears, or none at all ? No ! ears 
were made for hearing, and this the cricket 
under the stone knows much better than 
the sceptical scientist, as he chirps a merry 
challenge to his ladylove. 



IV 

THE GIFT OF WINGS 

1YING on a pleasant hilltop in the heat 
of an August day and lazily watch- 
y ing the active life in the grass and 
weeds, — for the hotter the sun the 
more lively some creatures become, — we 
wake up to a realization that the grasshop- 
pers, not content with sporting about in 
seven-league boots, have suddenly added the 
pomp of wings. Where did these wings 
come from, is a fair question, for certainly 
the first denizens of the fields had none. 
One almost never sees a winged grasshopper 
early in the Summer, and, as one soon dis- 
covers, almost never a wingless one late in 
the season. The reason is simple enough. 
Young grasshoppers have no wings, and 
since as a rule the old ones die in the Fall 
(at least this is true in temperate and cold 
climates), leaving only unhatched eggs to 
furnish a never-failing supply for the suc- 
ceeding season, the year starts with wingless 
infants. 

Whoever has enjoyed watching the legs 
of the grasshopper is sure to feel a revival of 



46 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 



interest when the wings appear, and in truth 
these are fully as entertaining. If we mean 
really to see them, however, 
we must first catch our grass- 
hopper. When he was young 
and only hopped, this was 
easy, requiring but a little 
extra agility on our part ; for, 
though so clumsy, we have 
the advantage of enormous 
size to swoop 
down upon the 
frantic pygmy 
and get him in 
spite of his 
superior legs, 
— unless in- 
deed he takes 
to the wheat, 
for if he can 
slip in between 
the serried 



stalks he is safe, as we could not find him 
even if we dared tread down the grain. 
When he arrives at the dignity of wings, 




THE GIFT OF WINGS 



47 



however, catching him is quite another 
matter, for he sees us coming, gives a deri- 
sive kick, or so it looks, and spreading newly 
acquired wangs darts easily and once for all 
out of reach. Some grasshoppers do not take 
readily to flight, 
but others fly 
swiftly, and upon 
such slight provo- 
cation that it is 
next to impossi- 
ble to get hold 
of them. 
They see 
us from 
afar, and 
long b e- 
fore we are near 
enough tocircum- 
vent them, even 
with a long- 
handled net, they 
are up and off, 
asperating good-bye. 

Having captured one, however, 
the admiration we were so ready 
to extend to these newly acquired wings 
receives a check. We wonder instead how 
it is possible to do any flying with such 
narrow, hard, stiff things, that fold down like 
a peaked roof over the back, in no sense 




rat-tat-ting 



48 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 



suggesting the poetry of flight. It is never 
safe to judge even a grasshopper by appear- 
ances, however ; so let us, in spite of strenu- 
ous kicks and vengeful molasses, gently lift 
one of these hard wings a little, when we 
shall see at once that they are not used for 
flying. There is another pair nicely folded 
up under them, these outer parts being exactly 
w^hat they seem — wing covers to protect the 
delicate wings and the back of the insect. 
Undoubtedly a good arrangement for rainy 
days and quiet hours, but what can the 

grasshopper do with 
them when he wants to 
spread true wings and 
take a turn through 
the air? 

It will do no harm, 
begging the grass- 
hopper's pardon, .to 
take hold of the tip of 
one and carefully pull 
it out sideways. At a 
certain point we can let 
go, and it will stay in 
place of itself, standing 
out at nearly right 
angles to the body. 
Thus, his wing covers 
having been opened, the grasshopper does 
not need to pay any further attention to 




THE GIFT OF WINGS 49 

them. They lock, as it were, and remain 
fixed, until by a slight effort he releases them, 
when they close apparently of their own 
accord, working like any other well-made 
spring. Thus he can put all his energy into 
the sport of flying, for the true wings, cun- 
ningly folded up like tiny fans under the 
hard covers, suddenly spread out to bear 
him swiftly through the air. 

We often see him speeding along as gayly 
colored as any butterfly, but when this bright 
denizen of the air touches earth his beauty 
vanishes as by magic, and all we can find is 
a dull brown grasshopper that no one who 
did not know his tricks would suspect of 
hiding a cloak of crimson and gold under 
so sober an outside. 

Just how the grasshopper works his wings 
of flight is yet another of those inscrutable 
trifles that have thus far baffled the mind of 
man. If we only understood it, we should 
be able to construct a flying machine that 
could fly at least as well as a grasshopper, 
and that would serve us well enough for all 
purposes but crossing the ocean, for the best 
fliers can soar both high and far ; but, truth 
to tell, the grasshoppers are not sky dwel- 
lers, their affairs being intimately connected 
with the pleasant earth and its green foli- 
age. Yet though we cannot get at the final 
mystery of the grasshopper's flight, we know 



50 
that 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 



it is caused by the rapid motion of the 
/f fi wings against the air, and that 
,jff\ this motion is produced by the 
contraction of certain muscles 
which have their origin in 
that serviceable and hard- 
worked section, the thorax. 
Wing covers are not 
peculiar to the grass- 
hoppers, as we shall dis- 
cover when the first beetle comes 
along, nor are they always such 
sordid-looking objects. We need 
. not move from our 
^/ comfortable place on 
the hilltop to see, 
sooner or later, a flash 
of brilliant green or purple or 
red cross our path, as a gayly 
painted and highly polished 
beetle hurries along on im- 
portant business. His wing 
covers — '' shards " the poet 
calls them — are as brilliant 
as the wings of any butterfly, and 
the sharded beetle outshines the un- 
poetic grasshopper by virtue of 
carrying his colors in plain view 
instead of hiding them away. 

No doubt there was a time far, 
far back, when grasshoppers and beetles and 




THE GIFT OF WINGS 51 

all other bearers of wing covers had four 
flying wings, but as time passed the upper 
pair for some reason ceased to serve, then 
hardened and stiffened until they became 
what we see them, mere protectors, or at 
best, sails to set against the wind. 

Still farther back the insects had no wings 
at all, and this is still the case with the grass- 
hopper for the greater part of his life. His 
wings come to him gradually, as wings came 
gradually to his race. He hatches from the 
tiny egg as a grasshopper, recognizable by 
anybody, but quite wingless and very baby- 
ish in appearance. If we wish to see him at 
this time, we shall have to go about it very 
early in the Summer, the best way being to 
dig out a nestful of unhatched eggs. He 
appears upon the stage of life tiny, pale, 
scarcely able to stand, for his legs, though 
six, are excessively wobbly, and he rolls and 
twists about in a comical manner. His appe- 
tite is not uncertain, however, and he soon 
acquires strength to stand up very straight 
on his young legs, while the sun browns 
him and time transforms him into a most 
uncommonly pert-looking infant. 

Being born hungry, he eats heartily of 
the delicacies always within reach and grows 
apace, until he suddenly finds himself too 
big for his skin ; for growing subjects him 
to an inconvenience about which we know 



52 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 



nothing. Our skin grows with our body; 
his does not. In short, his skin is his skele- 
ton. That it is outside is of no 
consequence, since the use of a 
skeleton, wherever it may be, is 
merely to support and protect 
the soft parts of the body ; as a 
matter of fact, there are many 
more creatures with outside 
skeletons than with inside ones. 
All insects have them, and they 
are composed, not of bone, 
but of horny chitin, a 
substance so inde- 
structible that even fire 
will not burn it. It is 
this that makes the 
insects so hard and 
stiff, gives rigidity to 
the strong legs of the 
grasshopper, and binds 
the tender body of the 
young insect in a horny 
swaddling cloth in 
which it can do no 
more growing. 
What is to be done ? The uncomfortable 
prisoner looks as though he were recalling 
his past gluttony with sadness and remorse, 
as he stands quite still with legs drawn up 
on the grass blade, which has lost all flavor 




THE GIFT OF WINGS 53 

for him. In the throes of anguish he firmly 
clutches the grass stalk with his hind toes, 
and then, woful sight ! his too tight skin 
begins to split down the back, and through 
the opening presses out the soft pale body. 
At the same time his form is rent with spas- 
modic movements. But these painful strug- 
gles are not the throes of death, for presently 
he draws his head entirely out of its skin, 
which remains as a stiff and transparent 
mask, eyes, antennae, and all. He can now 
look clear-eyed on a pleasant world once 
more; but his troubles are by no means, 
over, for it is very evident by this time that 
he is actually taking off his skin. More 
spasmodic contractions of the imprisoned 
muscles, and he pulls out his fore feet, leav- 
ing their old skin dangling like a pair of 
cast-off gloves. It is fojtunate that at the 
beginning of trouble he clutched fast with 
his hind toes, for now they are his only 
support as he struggles loose, pulling with 
his newly emerged fore feet ; and these 
quickly harden, although when first drawn 
out they were soft and helpless. Finally, 
after much contracting of muscles he pulls 
himself through the rent in the back of 
his old skin, which as it loosens he works 
beneath him, finally shedding it like a pair 
of overalls. 

There is only one thing for the sympathetic 



54 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 



beholder to worry over, — how can he with- 
draw his hind legs, doubled up as they are 
at a sharp angle as though ready to hop? 
He could not do it if the new skin were as 
stiff as the old, but at first it is quite 
soft and flexible; indeed his legs are 
as limber as a pair of 
leather shoestrings, so 
that all he has to do is 
to pull them around the 
corner, when of course 
they are bent double suc- 
cessively through their 
whole length. It is rather 
a critical moment, and 
though he succeeds in 
getting them out, they do 




show signs of hard treatment, being curved 
in a distressing manner that makes the newly 
emerged creature look hopelessly bow-legged. 
However, they straighten out as the new skin 
hardens. Very soft now, but considerably 
enlarged, the debutant clings weakly to his 
cast-off skin- which has shrivelled up until 



THE GIFT OF WINGS 



55 



the wonder is that it ever fitted him. In a 
few hours he will be moving joyfully about 
as hard as ever — and a size larger. 

If now w^e look for wings, we may dis- 
cover a pair of tiny pale 
scales, — not wings, indeed, 
but a promise. 

Having so successfully 
surmounted the perils of a 
too tight skin, he finds him- 
self hungrier than ever after 
his long fast, for though he 
may cast his skin in less 
than half an hour, he loses 
his appetite for some time 
before, and cannot eat until 
he is suffi- 
ciently hard- 
ened some 
time after. 
With what 



eagerness the starveling now falls upon the 
good things within reach ! Regardless of 
consequences he gormandizes more than ever, 
and in the course of a few days finds himself 
in the old predicament — skin altogether 
too tight. There is only the one remedy, 




56 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

and presently he reappears upon the scene 
looking as fresh as though he had just been 
painted, — a size larger, and carrying a little 
pad on each side of his back instead of the 
two formless scales. 

Thus he passes through the perils of youth 
until he arrives at the fourth or fifth moult, 
which is also the last and most difficult 
change of skin. He is now a well grown, 
strong-bodied stripling, able to hop high and 
far, but not yet able to fly, for though his back 
is adorned by w^hat appears to be a pair of 
little wings, they are as yet quite useless. 

Wings are the crown of his days, and not 
until the last moult, when he has attained 
his full size and all his powers, do the 
wings free themselves from their enveloping 
membranes. 

As the old skin is pushed off for the last 
time, the wings — still small, limp, and damp 
— drop out. Quickly the air and fluids rush 
through the freed channels, the wing covers 
taking shape and consistency, the underwings 
lengthening and widening, as though a flower 
were opening its delicate petals. They hang 
thus free until sun and air have dried and 
hardened them, when they are folded up and 
tucked away under the now ready wing covers. 
The earth-bound grasshopper has blossomed 
into that glorious thing, a winged creature. 



V 

SONG AND REVELRY 

WHEN the dusty air quivers in the 
fierce heat of midsummer, when 
the meadows parch and turn 
brown, and the most energetic of 
humankind gladly lapses into a summer- 
idler, then the grasshoppers are in the very 
heyday of life and action. They chirp, they 
dart on whirring wings, or make sharp, 
snapping noises as they speed along. Then 
painted fans are everywhere challenging the 
gorgeous sails of the butterflies, as though 
when the mad hour of flight came, the hum- 
drum world with its sober colors had a 
right to be forgotten in intoxicating voyages 
through the sun-drenched air. 

Wings announce the holiday time of the 
grasshoppers, appearing as they do when the 
great pressure of eating for a living is about 
over. The grasshopper must grow, and grow 
fast, to complete his little cycle of life in the 
one short season that is his, and to do this 
he must eat industriously, and with a sin- 
gle mind, until he has reached his maturity. 



58 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 



Then for a brief season life is his for pleas- 
ure. His bank account is sure, with no 
danger of any def- 
icit; he can sport 
gay wings if he has 
them, only taking 
the precaution to 
tuck them away out 
of sight when he 
comes to rest on his 
beloved but always 
dangerous mother 
earth. Life is his 
now for pleasure 
alone, and 
he runs a . 

brief career 
of flying, 
chirping, 
and love- 
making. 




^^v. J.K-' •//' 



<;//.) >., 



^^v^:^ 



Not that he has stopped eating altogether, 
— the habit is too firmly established and the 
need is not quite all gone ; for though he 



SONG AND REVELRY 



59 



has no longer to expend energy in growing, 
he has still to supply fuel for the varied 
activities 
that yet 
remain 

to him. The chief of these 
is finding his mate, and 
upon this important and 
happy task he now lavishes 
all the graces of his grass- 
hopper nature. It is for 
this he cheerily chirps, for the young 
grasshopper has not that strident 
gift ; and thus it is the latter part 
of the Summer that so resounds 
with the tumult of grasshoppers, 
katydids, and crickets. 
These sounds, which 
fill the meadows and 
vibrate through the 
night, are one and all 
love calls ; and this 
knowledge 
may per- 
haps give 
them a 
pleasanterL.^'^i 



note to our 
sometimes 



m 



■^■^r^^ 



:W±mB 






wearied but always sympathetic ear. 

The grasshopper is doubly blessed when 



6o GRASSHOPPER LAND 

he gets his wings, since they bestow not 
only that most enviable of all endowments, 
the power of flight, but that sister gift of the 
gods, the power of song. 

The song of the grasshopper, though too 
simple to excite envy in many breasts, is yet 
sufficient to express the happiness of an 
overflowing heart ; and such as it is, it comes 
entirely from the wings, the modest wing 
covers here taking an important part, some- 
times being played upon violin-wise by legs, 
strung for the purpose. 

Legs and wings, inexhaustible treasures, 
produce the tireless chirping of our summer 
meadows. The long hind legs, disdaining 
to act as mere organs of locomotion in this 
gay season, in some species assume also the 
part of musical instruments shrilly effective 
if not oversw^eet of tone; and the summer 
idler, oppressed by the heat of noonday, can 
charm away an hour by catching a common 
brown hopper and looking at the inside of 
the femur with a tolerably strong magnifying 
glass. What he will see, if successful, is a 
number of very fine ridges which are used to 
set the adjacent wing cover into vibration. 

Out in the meadows, where the grass- 
hoppers are making the best of the fair days 
of courtship, the attentive rambler will many 
a time catch the ecstatic fiddler in the very 
act. Holding himself down to earth with 



SONG AND REVELRY 6i 

his other feet, he draws femur and tibia of 
the hind legs as close together as he can 
get them, and jigs them rapidly up and 
down. Then through the willing air comes 
trilling his feeble song of the Summer, for 
the note of these fiddlers is not very loud, 
being that far-away sounding chirp we so 
often hear when lying on the grass, doubt- 
less the sound to which Homer likened the 
voices of old men done with fighting, and 
who 

" In summerdays like grasshoppers rejoice, 
A bloodless race, that send a feeble voice." 

Not all grasshoppers have so feeble a voice, 
however, some of them shrilling out until 
they can be heard a quarter of a mile away; 
for the grasshopper tribe is a large one, com- 
prising not only the grasshoppers proper, but 
the crickets, and between these, numerous 
strange forms that seem to belong equally 
to both sides, — grasshoppers that are half 
cricket, crickets that one can hardly tell from 
grasshoppers. 

When we glance over the earth, we find 
the grasshopper family represented almost 
everyv/here, and in a state of confusion as to 
who is who. So, while grasshoppers of one 
division scrape their legs against their wing 
covers to produce the solacing sounds they 
so love to make, others discard the help-of the 
legs altogether. They slightly raise the wing 



62 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 



covers, and then by muscular action rub the 

upper parts of the wings 
against the upper parts 
of the wing covers which 
are modified for the pur- 
pose, and thus set into 
violent vibration, accom- 
plishing beautiful results 
of shrill ecstasy. Again, 
certain species set their 
wing covers into vibra- 
tion during flight, making 
the rat-tat-ting sound so 
familiar and so exasperat- 
ing to those who have 
tried in vain to capture 
the minstrels ; for to these 
rat-tat-ters belong the 
very best fliers, and it is 
also these that poise on 
speaking wings above 
their ladylove as she sits 
watchful in the grass. 

Although the 
musicians per- 
form on 
such sim- 
^ pie instru- 
ments, it 
must not 
be taken for granted that they express no 




SONG AND REVELRY 63 

individuality. On the contrary, one can very 
quickly learn to distinguish the different 
species by their voices, and more than this, 
the different individuals. For, after all, what 
is voice, in ourselves or in the grasshopper, 
but air vibrations of different rapidities strik- 
ing against the sensitive curtains of the ears ? 
We voice our sentiments in tones of varying 
pitch, so do the grasshoppers ; we space our 
sets of vibrations in a variety of ways, so do 
they. Only they lack that wonderful instru- 
ment that we have in our vocal chords and 
accessory organs. What they say is very- 
simple and comparatively monotonous, yet it 
is pleasant to think that when grasshopper 
John chirps to grasshopper Eliza he does it 
with his own unmistakable, individual grass- 
hopper John chirp, which grasshopper Jim 
could no more imitate than we could imitate 
the voice of our next-door neighbor. He 
may say the same thing, but he says it in 
his own voice, which makes all the difference. 
It is probable that what grasshopper John 
says is very simple indeed ; it may be only 
this, "Where are you, my dear, where are 
you ? " and then, '' I love you, I love you. " 
But I leave it to any one if that is not 
enough. Undoubtedly to grasshopper Eliza 
this cry of grasshopper John is thrillingly 
sweet, and very likely puts her more in uni- 
son with those upper-sky spaces into which 



64 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

her new wings occasionally bear her. But 
if grasshopper John's voice is simple, grass- 
hopper Eliza's is yet simpler, for she has 
none at all. She can only thrill in silence 
to his ecstatic love-chirps. Her wings are 
well grown and can bear her above the 
meadows of her childhood, but they are only 
for flying, and she can sing no song with 
them, it being reserved for her more fortu- 
nate lover to combine the ecstasy of flight 
with that of song. 

Nor is the grasshopper, because of his 
simple nature, barred from the enchantments 
of a complex courtship. It seems to be the 
nature of Eliza from the monad to man to 
require strenuous effort as the price of her 
favors. Grasshopper Eliza sits silent on her 
blade of grass and watches with apparent in- 
difference the advances of her lover. Some- 
times grasshopper John runs coquettishly 
up and touches her lightly with his antenna, 
then suddenly retires as though fearing some 
dire punishment to follow so bold a deed. 
Again he poises in the air on clattering wings 
immediately above her, as though hoping to 
catch an approving glance from her beaming 
eye. But she is not yet ready, and coyly 
repulses his advances, or, more cruelly yet, 
ignores them. Thus pass the warm summer 
days, until cruel Eliza relents and is kind to 
little grasshopper John. 



SONG AND REVELRY 



65 



Throughout the whole grasshopper world, 
among crickets, katydids, and all that have 
the power of song, it is the 
male alone who is thus en- 
dowed. Upon him 
rests the whole obloquy 
of filling the summer 
nights with ceaseless 
and ear-piercing cries. 
Does his silent partner 
among the leaves near 
listen with unfaltering 
tention to the joyful clamor, 
or does she, like 




ourselves, occa- 
sionally long for 
a respite, or even 
sleep through the 
deafening chorus 
that swells in her 
honor? 

Doubtless it is 
claiming too much 
to say that the 
chirping of the 
grasshoppers and 
crickets is only 
the cry of love. Doubtless they too feel the 
joy of life, the mere rapture of existence that 
makes boys whistle and lambs frisk. The 
cricket on the hearth in midwinter can have 



J 



66 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

no rational hope of luring his love out of the 
near-by snowbanks, yet he chirps away as 
shrilly as ever he did in the sweet and cricket- 
filled summertime. 

Notwithstanding occasional bright wings 
shaken out at the moment of flight, even the 
riotous August grasshoppers are a sober 
folk so far as their garb is concerned ; yet 
these quiet colors, though they may not 
charm our eye, invest the wearers with a 
certain pleasing interest, for to the grass- 
hopper as to the rest of us life is sweet, 
and an inconspicuous dress helps him to 
preserve it. 

If we happen to be loitering the summer 
days away at the seashore, we shall often be 
confronted by pale gray grasshoppers the 
color of the sand, and looking as though 
dusted over with it. These are not dusty, 
however, but by some inner force of selec- 
tion have clothed themselves in the garb 
most truly protective ; unless they move, 
you will hardly notice them. Next to 
the gift of life itself among the small de- 
fenceless creatures is the power to save that 
life from devouring foes. Since one of the 
best protections is to be inconspicuous, 
among all small or weak creatures we find 
their covering, whether it be of fur, feathers, 
or painted skin, colored like their surround- 
ings. The green-mottled frog sitting at 



SONG AND REVELRY 



67 



home feels safe in his skin, so inconspicu- 
ous by the brookside, however it may seem 
when we rudely snatch him away and place 
him in surroundings that are not colored 
brookwise. 

Certain animals, as every one knows, even 
change their color to suit a changing envi- 
ronment, as, for instance, the arctic hare, 
which, snow white in winter, becomes brown 
in summer; and, going a step farther, there 
are little lizards that take the color of what- 
ever they happen to rest upon. How ani- 
mals control their coloring is another of 
those simple mysteries inscrutable to the 
lord of creation, who can measure the dis- 
tance of a star but cannot explain that 
faculty in a grasshopper which enables it 
to produce a pale skin for residence in the 
sand banks, and a black one for occupation 
on black soil. 

Since many grasshoppers live by prefer- 
ence on the ground near the roots of the 
grass stalks, they are well protected by being 
colored brown or brown-and-green, while 
others choose green relieved by touches of 
yellow and red for their costume ; and the 
katydids, preferring to hide among the 
leaves in the tree tops, are invariably green. 
Crickets, on the other hand, choosing to hide 
away in dark places, under stones and in the 
crevices of rocks, are found clad in funereal 



68 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

black. However, in Austria there is a fine 
black cricket with white wings. 
As a rule, the grasshopper folk 
are colored according 
to the life they lead, 
being sombre brown, 
or gray, or green, ex- 
cepting certain ones 
that aesthetically min- 
gle bright reds and 
yellows with their 




greens and browns, as though conscious that 
the grasses, and the sunlight playing over all, 



SONG AND REVELRY 69 

yielded also those colors. Why the under 
wings are bright is another of those appar- 
ently simple but really unanswerable ques- 
tions that are always confronting us in the 
world of nature. 

We are learnedly told that the wings of 
all male creatures, whether insects or birds, 
have become beautiful through a long proc- 
ess of selection, bright colors insuring suc- 
cess in courtship, even the proud tail of the 
peacock offering no difficulties to these theo- 
rists. But this lucid explanation fails to 
enlighten us as to how the very first pea- 
cock tail came to be full of bright eyes, or 
how the very first pair of royal purple grass- 
hopper wings got their dye. 

We can imagine that a peacock of excep- 
tional beauty might vanquish his rivals for 
the favor of a very discriminating ladylove, 
and that his descendants, inheriting his 
charms, might also bear away the matri- 
monial prize, until the whole race finally 
inherited the glowing ornaments of the suc- 
cessful suitors; but that first peacock, — 
who can account for him ? 

May it be that his beauty came as an ex- 
pression of superabundant vitality, which 
thus overflowed in bright colors instead of 
in horns or outrageous protuberances? that 
he was so full of harmonious life force that 
he blossomed into beauty, as other birds. 



70 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

expending their superabundant force in an- 
other channel, burst into song? 

His mate overflowing less with vitality and 
able to subdue her plumage to the necessities 
of the family life, the double selection goes on, 
the handsomest male giving the instinct for 
beauty to his sons, and the mother best pro- 
tected for her long period of brooding hand- 
ing on through inheritance to her daughters 
the priceless gift of quiet coloring. 



VI 



WONDERFUL POSSESSIONS 

RECLINING on a dry and mossy bank 
near a tangle of sun-warmed weeds 
where the grasshoppers are stirring 
'^ about their various pursuits, the sum- 
mer idler will presently fall to wondering what 
power guides their actions. He discerns a sim- 
ple intelligence in them that seems akin to the 
workings of his own mind. 

Has this grasshopper, then, a brain? Has 
it a nervous system folded somewhere in the 
eager body? If so, is it like our own, differ- 
ing only in degree ? Or does it differ also in 
quality? 

Summer dreaming and superficial looking 
will not bring the answer to these questions; 
it is necessary to turn to the student of 
nature, who spends his days seeking to lift 
one by one the veils that shroud so much of 
this wonderful earth life. He tells us that 
the insect has indeed a nervous system, that 
most inscrutable of all mysteries, as inscru- 
table in a grasshopper as in a man, and 
essentially the same ; for though the brain of 



72 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

a grasshopper cannot plan an ocean steamer 
or compose a poem, yet it is a true brain, able 
to guide its possessor through a life which, 
though so simple, is yet full of perils. 

As one would expect, the nervous system 
of these careless visitants of a Summer dif- 
fers from our own in many ways ; it has, for 
instance, a series of little brains along its 
central axis from head to tail, the largest and 
most complex of these being found in the 
head. This is a most convenient arrange- 
ment for a creature bearing its ears on its 
legs, for the nerve of hearing, instead of wind- 
ing its way to the head-brain, is able to make 
a much shorter connection with one of the 
other brains located nearer the ear. The eye, 
on the other hand, is closely associated with 
the head-brain, as is fitting for so complex a 
structure. The grasshopper looks knowingly 
at us out of eyes so w^onderfully made as to 
fill us with amazement, and the fact that they 
are differently formed from ours need not 
lead us to disparage his seeing-power. For, 
after all, what is an eye? Merely an instru- 
ment to gather up light vibrations, a nerve 
to pass them back, and a sensitive brain to re- 
ceive them. All these the grasshopper has, 
only his eyes are very puzzling to us because 
they are so complex. His brain may be 
simpler than ours, but be it known our eyes 
are much simpler than his, and just how he 



WONDERFUL POSSESSIONS 



7Z 



uses an eye made up of a group of many 
small eyes is too much for our single-eyed 
philosophy. 

We sometimes try to 
get around the mountain 
we cannot climb by say- 
ing the grasshopper can- 
not see at all. Just as if 
he would have exceed- 
ingly complicated eyes for 
the mere having of them ! 
No, eyes are for seeing, 
and if the grasshopper 
has them, it follows that 
he can see with 
them. To just 
what extent he 
sees, how things 
look to him, and 
what he thinks 
about it all, we 
should very much 




74 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 



like to know. We should like to know, too, 
whether he is as wise as he appears, and 
whether he really has discovered life from 
the grasshopper point of view to be one 
vast and splendid joke. He certainly gives 
that impression as he sits contemplatively 
on a blade of grass. 

That there is a quick and sympathetic 
communication between eye and brain we 

learn to our cost if 
we carelessly open the 
glass jar in which for 
purposes of 
our own we 
wish to detain 
a reluctant 
~^^T^^'Ji^—^ member of the 
— I^J^^--' active tribe. 

" -^^" ' In a moment 

the door to freedom is discovered, and, by 
some related working of eyes and brain 
which appears to be the same as that in our- 
selves under similar circumstances, the alert 
captive suddenly puts all his best jumping 
into play and away he goes, giving us a pretty 
chase to capture him again. 

Although the insects carry their ears any- 
where but on their heads, their eyes, as we 
well know, are found where we are accustomed 
to think of eyes ; but besides possessing two 
large ones with which to contemplate a puz- 




WONDERFUL POSSESSIONS 75 

zling world, the grasshopper sometimes has 
the top of his head ornamented with three 
small simple eyes, which seem to be of no 
present use and are often lacking. In some 
insects, as the bees, they are always pres- 
ent, and may be helpful in poking about the 
narrow corridors of a dark hive. 

But whether they are useful to the owners 
or not, these three eyes are very interesting 
to us, for at least traces of them are found 
in nearly all insects; which shows that, 
whatever they are to-day, they were once 
important, probably being the only eyes the 
creature had. Now they survive as mere 
signs of heraldry, establishing the pedigree 
of the insect and carrying it straight back, 
not to Norman conqueror or Roman emperor, 
but to that far-back ancestor of all of us, the 
worm. Insects are undoubtedly developed 
from worms, though not from any worm now 
on earth, and it would be very unfair as well 
as discourteous to call them such. 

It makes us feel our limitations to be 
obliged to confess we cannot understand the 
eyes of a grasshopper, but that is only a 
beginning of our helplessness in the face 
of this very mysterious insect. If the eyes 
bother our superior intelligence, what are we 
to do about the antennae, those marvellous 
threads that grace the front of every grass- 
hopper and bestow upon him powers of 



76 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

which we ourselves would not need to be 
ashamed ? For one thing, there is no doubt 
that he smells by means of his antennae, and 
smells with a niceness and to an extent 
scarcely dreamed of by us ; for though our 
power of smell is by far the keenest of our 
senses, it is crude enough compared with that 
of most insects. It has been demonstrated 
that we can detect by our coarser sense of 
smell the presence of 2y6ooVooiro of a grain 
of mercaptan, a very malodorous and pene- 
trating substance. Imagine it if you can, 
our noses able to detect something so small 
that the microscope would have hard work 
to find it ; and then reflect that the humble 
insect with his superior sense of smell would 
find this a very elementary performance. 

No doubt the sense of smell was originally 
developed to enable animals to smell out 
their food, to find their friends, and to detect 
their enemies. Man has found other ways of 
meeting these needs, so his sense of smell is 
on the wane, though it still continues to be, 
as just said, the most acute faculty that he 
has. The insects, on the other hand, have 
never ceased to depend upon their power of 
smell to guide them aright, and in many 
cases they rely upon it to the exclusion of 
both sight and hearing, some insects having 
enormously developed antennae. 

Recalling the general history of eyes and 



WONDERFUL POSSESSIONS 



11 



ears, one naturally and truly surmises that 
the organ of smell is in all creatures funda- 
mentally the same, — a surface sensitive to 
odors, a nerve to carry the impression, and a 
brain to receive it. 

With ourselves the sensitive surface is at 
the upper end and inside the nose, and that 
prominent fea- 
ture, of whose 
sometimes classic 
form we are so 




proud or so envious as the case may be, is 
after all nothing but a shed to cover the 
exceedingly sensitive membrane within, — a 
fact which may console those whose noses 
are hopelessly retrousse. But though we 
have our nose in the middle of our face we 
could not be so unreasonable as to expect 
all creatures to do the same. Among the 
higher animals this happens to be conven- 
ient, but among the insects the olfactory 



jS GRASSHOPPER LAND 

organs are not on the face at all, but on the 
long antennae or feelers that grow out from 
the front of it. 

We can imagine the insects depending so 
much upon the sense of smell that an ordi- 
nary nose could not at all supply their needs ; 
a smelling organ of extreme delicacy, capable 
of being waved about in the air, being much 
more able to intercept the subtle odors upon 
the detection of which may depend the crea- 
ture's very life, — odors so subtle that we with 
all our pride of brain could not even know 
they existed. 

Although the grasshopper's feelers were 
not designed as mere ornaments, yet like our 
noses, they add immensely to the personal ap- 
pearance of the fam.ily; and it could easily be 
imagined that vanity dictated the graceful 
way in which they are waved about, if one 
did not know the very practical nature of 
those delicate appendages. If we study one 
under the microscope for a while, we shall 
discover the secret of its w^onderful flexibility. 
It is not a solid rod, but a great many tiny 
sections, connected by movable joints. This 
makes it as limber as a willow switch, while 
it has a power possessed by no switch, for it 
can move itself, being supplied, tiny as it is, 
with yet more tiny muscles and nerves. 

But this is not all that the microscope is 
able to tell us about it. Each tiny segment, 



WONDERFUL POSSESSIONS 79 

excepting the ones nearest the head, is sup- 
plied with minute pits or hollows, each con- 
taining a yet more minute hair or bristle. A 
nerve running from each pit into the large 
trunk of the main olfactory nerve connects 
with the brain. Sometimes there are as many 
as fifty of these pits on each minute segment 
of a grasshopper's antenna, and they with 
their accessory parts are the organs of smell, 
than which there is nothing more wonderful 
on earth, excepting the workings of the mind 
itself. 

Although the grasshopper can undoubtedly 
see with its eyes, yet it does not trust them 
to decide so nice a matter as whether a thing 
is good to eat. The antennae must do that. 
How quickly the fastidious creature shrinks 
back if these mentors touch a disagreeable 
object ! Danger lurks where the smell is not 
right. And how carefully each bit of food 
must be examined by the quivering threads 
before it can be tasted ! 

Even the cockroach is a fastidious and 
dainty feeder, although we might differ with 
him in the choice of a menu. He has feel- 
ers of a length and delicacy to grace a no- 
bler front, and he handles them in a pretty 
fashion that well becomes a near relative 
of the grasshoppers, which he is in spite of 
his looks. He has a way of poking about 
other people's pantries after dark, and for 



So 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 



this discreditable 
longest and most 



business 
sensitive 



he 
of 



needs the 
antennae. 



The advantage of 
antennae over eyes is 
that the possessor can 
live in the dark, if he 
must, and yet be able 
to explore the universe. 
No doubt life is sweet 
even in the caverns of 
the earth, where knowl- 
edge is principally con- 
veyed through the 
antennae, these valuable 
organs being exceed- 
ingly sensitive to touch 
as well as to smell. The 
extent of their power 
who can know ! They 
decide, it may be, tex- 
ture, surface, tempera- 
ture, and even color, as 
certain curiously gifted 
human beings are said 
to do, by touch alone. 

The observant sum- 
mer idler knows that 
grasshoppers differ very 
much in the style of 
their antennae, it being the universal fashion 
among a certain class which are slender and 




WONDERFUL POSSESSIONS 8i 

rather elegantly proportioned to bear an- 
tennae to match, although they do not banish 
themselves to the nether regions in conse- 
quence. These we call long-horned grass- 
hoppers, heedless of the fact that their long 
and graceful threads do not bear the slight- 
est resemblance to horns. Others, again, 
being of a sturdy and homespun make, have 
comparatively short and thick-set feelers, 
which better justify us in calling them short- 
horned grasshoppers. 

The fly, which is always with us, has for- 
tunately exceedingly short antennae. Imag- 
ine him fitted with a pair like those of the 
katydid when at an early hour he comes to 
promenade across our pillowed cheek ! He 
has them short and thickened at the end, to 
afford room for the olfactory spots, evidently 
not finding it necessary to his peace of mind 
to put them in actual contact with the ob- 
jects he wishes to test. Indeed, mere length 
of antennae is not the final test of useful- 
ness, some insects having them very short 
as well as very effective, though there must 
always be sufficient room on their parts to 
support the indispensable olfactory spots. 

When we look at the tumblebug, we might 
be excused for thinking he had none at all, 
since when disturbed he tucks them flat under 
his head. Digging in the earth with a head 
shaped like a spade is not consistent with 



82 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 



long antennae, yet the tumblebug needs good 
smellers to enable him to find just the right 
material for his precious ball. Consequently 
his organs have been modified to the last 
degree, the tiny segments enlarged and flat- 
tened into plates that lie close together and 
can be flattened and folded to fit into a little 
hollow under his head, where they are quite 
safe when digging is under way. ^ 

It is wonderful how the katydids 




and some others of the grasshopper kind are 
able to pass through the vicissitudes of life 
out in the trees and bushes with such long 
and slender organs. These must be a great 
responsibility, one would think, always in 
danger of being broken or pulled off. Yet 
one seldom meets the victim of such a 
misfortune. 

If for any reason, however, the insect does 



WONDERFUL POSSESSIONS 87, 

lose his antennae, he might, in many cases, 
as well lose his life. Ants sometimes bite 
off each other's feelers when fighting; and 
the one thus crippled no longer fights, or 
eats, or does anything but mope about until 
death relieves him. 

Deprived of his sense of smell, the insect 
no longer recognizes food or friend, or de- 
tects the presence of an enemy. He is a 
soldier in the thick of battle without armor 
or weapon of any sort, and soon disappears 
from the scene of action. 



VII 

MOLASSES AND OTHER IMPORTANT MATTERS 

WHOEVER has trifled with the 
grasshoppers, either in the careless 
hours of youth or at some later 
if not wiser season of outdoor 
idling, recalls the copious *' molasses " with 
which his fingers were promptly smeared. 

He recalls also the little rabbit-like mouth 
with its '' whiskers " always in motion, now 
nibbling grass blades, now spitting molasses 
on disturbing fingers, — a strange little mouth 
that opens the wrong way and has no teeth, 
the hard and horny jaws being notched or 
toothed on the edges, which is the better way 
for cutting up leaves. For our jaws to be 
placed on edge between nose and chin so as 
to open and shut from right to left would 
produce a result fit only for a nightmare, 
but for the insect such an arrangement is 
useful and not in the least unbecoming. As 
for the rest, this absurd and diminutive 
mouth is moved by muscles as carefully 
made and attached as any that we possess. 



MOLASSES AND OTHER MATTERS 85 

Who has not watched a grasshopper nib- 
bling a leaf? How fast the eager mouth 
travels along the edge, leaving an empty 
space or a ragged scallop to mark its destruc- 
tive course ! It is astonishing how much one 
little growing mite can devour in the course 
of a day. The word '' growing " explains it, 
however; the leaf is only so much fuel cast 
into a consuming furnace, so much raw 
material to 
be worked 
up into grass- 
hopper tis- ^ _ _ 
sue, for the ^ r^^^^':lj^'^i 
food is swal- W^^l^^^ 
lowed into 
that diges- 
tive laboratory with which in one form or 
another every animal body is provided. 

But how account for the '' molasses " ? 
We certainly do not enjoy it, and that, no 
doubt, is the grasshopper's unfriendly reason 
for using it. He hopes to dismay us and 
force us to let him go. He might succeed 
if we were as small as himself, but at our 
size his ridiculous molasses is as futile as 
his protesting kicks. 

To a meddlesome insect, however, it might 
prove very disastrous, sticking to face and 
antennae and making him ill from the bad 
odor and very disagreeable taste of it. This 




-'(u^ — 



86 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 




molasses, in short, is the grasshopper's rather 
pathetic weapon of defence ; and there are 
insects that have developed the idea to an 

extravagant de- 
gree, being able to 
assault the sensi- 
tive olfactories of 
their foes with 
odors which no 
foe could endure, 
a hasty re- 
treat being 
infinitely 
preferable 
to the fur- 
ther pur- 
suit of their 



purpose. 
|)^ We have an il- 
§^';-^) lus tration of a 
similar habi t 
M much nearer our 
end of life in that 
otherwise inoffen- 
sive and rather pretty, little fellow we call a 
skunk. He has no claws fit to tear us and 
no teeth fit to bite us, yet how glad we are 
to let him alone ! 

And in the insect world, who does not 
remember with strong emotion the little 
round flat stink-bugs that love to disport 



MOLASSES AND OTHER MATTERS 87 

themselves on clusters of ripe raspberries ! 
Who has not had the awful experience in the 
course of his headlong and trusting childhood 
of popping one of these bodily into his mouth 
with a handful of luscious berries ? In spite 
of the aroma of the berries, how indescribably 
opposed to luscious is the result ! 

Among the near relatives of the grasshop- 
pers we remember the mantis, which, though 
so fierce a cannibal, is not provided with very 
good legs for jumping, or with very good 
wings for flying, or with a disposition to use 
any of these things if he had them. He will 
not fight anything but an insect, nor run 
away; but if you take hold of him, unless 
you have a very determined nature, you will 
gladly let go, for he quickly smears your fin- 
gers with a liquid which has a most offen- 
sive odor even to our comparatively dull 
sense of smell. Then what must it be to 
the sensitive feelings of his own kind? He 
greedily eats other insects, but he has no 
mind to be himself eaten if by any power of 
repulsion he can help it. Our Southern ne- 
groes call him '' mule-killer," believing his 
obnoxious liquid to be fatal to the life of 
that tough subject, the mule. This is far 
from the truth, however, and the mule that 
lives until killed by a mantis will have a 
long and weary road to travel. 

As though to be as offensive as possible, 



S8 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 



the mantis does not confine himself to spit- 
ting unfriendly liquid from his mouth, but dis- 
charges it from the upper segments of his front 
legs, — a distressful practice not disdained by 

many handsomer in- 
sects. The walking- 
stick, a harmless 
relative of the mantis, 
makes himself as ob- 
noxious as possible 
when disturbed, by 
discharging a dis- 
agreeable white 
liquid from the 
fore part of the 
thorax. Even 
the crickets, when 
captured, give 
forth an ill smell- 
ing fluid from the abdomen. But the most 
unpleasing of the grasshopper's relatives is 
our enemy the cockroach; he has most vile- 
smelling glands located in the abdomen, which, 
no doubt, is one reason we dislike him so. It 
is hard enough to have him help himself to 
our food, but when he also spoils everything 
he touches by the intolerable odor he leaves 
behind, no wonder he is universally loathed. 
The grasshoppers and their near relatives 
are not the only insects that offend in this way. 
The whole insect world is very generously 




MOLASSES AND OTHER MATTERS 89 

supplied with malodorous glands as a means 
of defence, some having them located in the 
legs, some in the thorax, some in the abdo- 
men. Some slowly discharge the offensive 
fluid, others squirt it out. Sometimes the 
gland that contains the liquid is turned in- 
side out, as in the case of the bright green- 
and-black striped, yellow-spotted caterpillar 
we often see feeding on caraway or parsnip. 
We know what happens if we poke him ; 
out is thrust a pair of soft, bright yellow 
horns just back of his head, and presently 
there creeps through the air the most over- 
powering stench, his protest against being 
poked. Birds find him as ill-tasting as he is 
ill-smelling, and gladly let him alone. 

The varieties of malodorous scent glands 
are sufficiently numerous, one should think, to 
accommodate any reasonable insect; but the 
terrible oil-beetle will none of them, preferring 
when teased to shed precious drops of blood 
from the joints of his legs — blood so acrid 
that it raises a blister on meddling fingers. 
It is to be hoped, for their own sakes, that 
these vile-smelling creatures are not sensitive 
to their own odors ; doubtless they are not, 
or they would not be so willing to inflict a 
punishment they themselves had to share. 

Not all odorous insects are disagreeable; 
it is probable that the smells emitted, even 
the vile ones, are useful in other ways than 



90 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

repelling an enemy. Naturally members of 
the same family would not be distressed by 
what might be called the common family odor, 
but, smelling it, would know just where to 
seek the one who gave it forth ; and among 
certain beetles we know that the scent gland 
is used by the insect to call its mate. 

Returning now from our long excursion 
through the realm of scent glands to the 
grasshopper's mouth, we find those amus- 
ing little finger-like processes to be inquired 
into. They certainly take the place of fingers 
to poke the food into the mouth and hold it 
there, and if we look long enough we shall 
discover two pairs of them. If we were to 
spend time enough over it, we should discover, 
too, that those wiseacres are right who say 
that all insects have them in one form or an- 
other, though they are often modified to 
such an extent as to be unrecognizable. The 
grasshopper is constantly moving his in a 
funny way that delights little children, and 
even those of a larger growth ; and it is with 
them he grasps the soiled foot and thrusts 
it into the ever ready mouth, as well as the 
antennae, which need careful and frequent 
cleaning to keep their sensitive spots from 
becoming clogged with dust. 

It would be puzzling to guess how the 
grasshopper gets hold of organs floating 
airily from the front of his face, since the 



MOLASSES AND OTHER MATTERS 91 

mouth fingers are very short, entirely too 

short to reach even the root of the antenna; 

but the summer 

idler who has been 

hobnobbing with 

grasshoppers all 

this time knows 

perfectly well how 

it is done. He 

knows that the 

grasshopper, as any 

sensible creature 

would, uses his 

fore leg for the pur 




-^^-^ 



pose, putting it up over his head and crooking 
the elbow about that end of the antenna near- 
est the face, then drawing it back to place, 
holding the captured antenna, which the 



92 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

mouth fingers are ready to grasp as soon 
as it comes within reach. These wise idlers 
also know that the grasshoppers with the 
numerous foot-pads prefer to wipe the an- 
tenna on these instead, all they have to do 
being to catch that airy appendage and step 
on it, when as it is drawn back to place 
it will be pulled against the soft little foot- 
pads, that thus humbly but honestly serve 
as a washcloth. When the grasshopper 
wishes to clean his neck and the underside 
of the thorax, as sometimes happens, it is 
worth being on hand to see the little head 
bent down and under the body, the short 
neck stretched to the utmost to enable the 
cleansing mouth to reach the desired point. 
But the best moment of all is when one 
polishes the long ovipositor at the extreme 
tip of the abdomen ; now the insect is rolled 
up like a hedgehog, with head beneath the 
curved back, though still standing upright 
on the patient legs. 

Head and thorax bearing as they do the 
interesting organs of locomotion and the 
equally interesting eyes, antennae, and mouth 
parts hold the first attention of the summer 
idler. In course of time he begins to dis- 
cern cause for interest in the abdomen, that 
hinder portion sans appendages and so very 
evidently composed of rings, — a part which 
has little to charm the eye, but which to him 



MOLASSES AND OTHER MATTERS 93 

who can read the signs tells a tale almost as 
alluring to the imagination as the growth of 
fair wings. The rings of the abdomen are 
the key to the structure of the whole insect. 
The thorax also is composed of rings, but 
these are so closely welded together that 
we do not discover them without the closest 
scrutiny. However, it is not over difficult 
for any one to assure himself that this is the 
fact and that the thorax is composed of three 
rings, each bearing a pair of legs, while the 
first ring bears also the wing covers, and the 
second the flying wings. 

The rings of the abdomen are not welded 
together, and they bear no appendages. They 
can move back and forth on each other 
like a telescope, being connected by a soft 
membrane, and this arrangement enables the 
body to wriggle if touched. 

It is quite evident that the abdomen is 
much more like the ancestral worm than any 
other part of the body. No doubt countless 
generations ago the ancestor of the grass- 
hopper did not have a part of its body-rings 
modified to carry legs and wings, for that 
we now see is what the thorax is, — merely 
modified rings. Nor will it surprise the 
complaisant summer idler, ready now to be- 
lieve anything, that those who have made it 
their business to find out, insist that the head 
also is composed of some half-dozen rings so 



94 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 



closely grown together and so modified that 
it took even them a long time to discover it. 
The history of the insect 
will become a little clearer at 
this point if we follow the ex- 
ample of those wise ones and 
look for a moment 
at the lowly but all- 
important worm, 
which is little more 
than a soft tube con- 
taining mus- 
cles, digestive 
and reproduc- 
tive organs, 
and a very simple 
nervous system. 
If this tube-like 
body should be 
suddenly inspired 
to clothe itself 
with a horny skin that 
did not harden every- 
where, but remained 
soft between rings of 
chitiL, and if it also 
divided these rings 
into several parts by remaining soft on the 
sides of each ring, we should get a creature 
everywhere similar to the abdomen of the 
grasshopper. 




MOLASSES AND OTHER MATTERS 95 

It is easy now to see how certain of these 
rings, growing larger and becoming more 
solidly attached together, might develop into 
the thorax ; and even how the head might be 
formed of rings very closely welded together 
and very greatly modified, the little feelers 
about the mouth being made of several joints, 
and having in truth an origin identical with 
that of the legs, being merely developed dif- 
ferently in order to do a different work. 

The worm became moulded into an in- 
sect by a profound but not incomprehensible 
modification of its tube-like body, in obe- 
dience to that glorious command which 
compelled living matter to go ever on and 
up, until out of so simple a beginning as a 
worm-like form even proud man himself was 
evolved. 

Man never passed through the insect stage, 
but travelled out in another direction, escap- 
ing the bondage of the ringed form. 

Although the abdomen of the grasshopper 
is of so primitive a form, it has one noble 
offiice, — it supports the breath of life. 

Depending like ourselves on the air it 
breathes, and being devoid of lungs, the in- 
sect has substituted a system of air tubes 
that run along inside the abdomen and carry 
air to the blood. These tubes, opening by 
little pores along the sides of the abdomen, 
are easily seen in the grasshopper and yet 



96 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

more plainly in some of the large caterpil- 
lars, where they have a ring of bright color 
about them. 

If we hold a grasshopper, we can distinctly 
see it breathe ; we shall also discover the 
wisdom of not having the abdominal rings 
solid like a finger ring, for the abdomen 
opens and shuts with every breath along two 
soft lines that run its whole length down 
either side, and near these soft lines are the 
breathing pores. Each abdominal ring is 
composed of four separate pieces connected 
by soft tissue, the largest one on top, cover- 
ing the back, one on either side, and one be- 
neath. Thus the abdomen can be distended 
to a certain extent and can allow of the 
breathing movements. 

The nutritive fluid in the insect body is 
not usually red, yet it may be justly called 
blood. That certain human beings claim to 
have blue blood everybody knows, though 
fortunately for them this is not literally true ; 
with the insects, however, it might be, for 
their blood is variously colored or not colored 
at all. A certain Florida fly, for instance, if 
shedding his heart's best blood, would shed 
it bright green. 

But, whatever its color, blood needs the 
oxygen of the air to enable it to do its work. 
Since the blood of the insect does not circu- 
late through veins and arteries, but must 



MOLASSES AND OTHER A^ATTERS 97 

find its way about through less perfect chan- 
nels, it is fortunate that it is not obliged to 
proceed in an orderly current to any air- 
station, but that the air comes to it through 
the abdominal tubes. However, the abdo- 
men does not monopolize this important 
function, there being also a few spiracles, or 
air-openings in the thorax at the base of the 
wings, where the body is soft and admits 
of sufficient motion to pump in the air — 
perhaps when the wings are moving. 

Nor is the insect quite dumb, in spite of 
his lack of lungs, for he makes the most of 
what he has. We find his spiracles — at 
least in some cases — fitted with a vibrating 
membrane that emits a true though simple 
tone, — in short, a voice. 

The summer idler would feel justly im- 
posed upon if asked to believe that a grass- 
hopper can talk, though we know how well 
he can sing. Indeed he cannot talk, nor has 
he, properly speaking, any voice at all ; but 
the bees are true vocalists, though so far 
as we know they have not formulated any 
dialect for sustaining conversation at home; 
the best they can do — at least so far as they 
have let us into the secret — is to scream 
for mercy when we catch them. Then they 
throw all their spiracle membranes into the 
most violent agitation, an agitation that sets 
abdominal rings and thorax into such a state 

7 



98 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

of vibration that you can distinctly feel them 
if you hold a bee in your fingers. If you 
are not careful you may feel something else 
yet more poignantly, though it is an easy 
matter to learn to hold even a bee without 
getting stung. 



VIII 

SWORDS, STINGS, AND DRILLS 

THE grasshopper, loved companion 
of our childhood, has no sting and 
no disagreeable habits whatever, 
excepting the absurd one of daub- 
ing us with molasses. Yet some of the tribe 
seem to bear a sword, the abdomen termina- 
ting in a goodly blade that might alarm us if 
we did not know so well the disposition of 
these gentle sword-bearers. The formidable- 
looking blade is simply an ovipositor, with 
no more sinister use than to deposit the eggs 
in a safe place, slitting grass-stalks or reeds 
for the purpose, or sometimes digging a hole 
in the ground. Consequently it is the pos- 
session of the females only, and is borne by 
those of all the long-horned grasshoppers as 
well as of the crickets. 

Much less pretentious, but far more effec- 
tive as a drilling machine, is the ovipositor of 
the short-horned grasshopper, which, in keep- 
ing with the stout and more compact build 
of the creature, is short, pointed, and very 
strong. It is made from the final segments 

LOFC 



loo GRASSHOPPER LAND 

of the abdomen, which are modified into four 
short, triangular pieces that fit together 
into a point when at rest and are quite in- 
conspicuous. When the moment of action 
arrives, however, this closed drill is pressed 
firmly into the ground, then opened, forcing 
the earth aside to make a hole as large 
as its body ; again the drill is closed and 
its sharp end thrust farther in, to be again 
opened. This operation is repeated until 
the persevering miner has bored a hole as 
long as its abdomen. 

Such is the strength of this tool in some 
species that it is used successfully for drilling 
holes in old logs and even in fence rails. 

The hole having been made, the eggs are 
placed in it, beginning at the bottom. Thus 
the first laid eggs are lowest down. When 
the young hatch — the lower ones presum- 
ably coming out first — how are they to 
escape without disturbing or even destroying 
the eggs above? It would be a careless 
insect that did not make provision for such 
a chance. So we do not find the eggs laid 
in a solid mass, but very prettily disposed 
around the edges of the hole, leaving an open 
space in the centre through which the newly 
hatched can easily ascend to the upper world. 
The eggs are embedded in a sort of resinous 
material that affords them protection. This 
also plugs up the hole, but is easily broken 



SWORDS, STINGS, AND DRILLS loi 



by the emerging insect. Thus each nest of 
eggs can be removed in one unbroken mass 
by any one desirous of collecting them. 

Having conscientiously dug the hole and 
deposited the eggs, the grass- 
hopper forthwith dismisses 
the whole matter, trusting the 
kindly earth to cradle the 
young until they make their 
way out in- 
to the wide 
world the fol- 



lowing sea- 
son, very 
small and 
weak but not 
at all afraid, 
and amply 
able to take 
care of them- 
selves. 

Although 
the grasshop- 
per tribes 
never use the ovipositor as a weapon of de- 
fence, there are insects that have been quick 
to avail themselves of so obviously good a 
chance. Such are the bees, whose ovipositor, 
as most of us have reason to know, is a very 
pointed argument in case of disagreement, 
its attacks being venomous as well as sharp ; 




I02 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

for this ingenious ovipositor, besides being 
as sharp as a needle, has connected with it 
a bag of virulent poison for the further ad- 
monition of the presumptuous. 

Knowing these facts, the philosopher read- 
ily infers that it is the female bee alone that 
stings, notwithstanding the warlike nature of 
the tribe. The truth seems to be that the 
necessities of life have transformed the whole 
sisterhood into a race of most pestiferous 
Amazons, who make war upon slight pro- 
vocation, attack besieging enemies with alac- 
rity, and regulate difficulties at home, always 
to the discomfiture of any drone, or male bee, 
that may be involved. For in a hive the 
worker bees are all females, though too im- 
perfectly developed to successfully repeople 
the hive — keeping, however, the ovipositor 
in full operation as a sting to be freely used 
in time of need or bad temper. 

The sting being a modified ovipositor, it 
follows that the unfortunate drone has no 
weapon at all. He is as harmless as a blue- 
bottle fly, and like that he can make a great 
noise, though he is quite unable to back up 
his threats with any deed of vengeance. He 
can be picked up with perfect safety, and any 
one so desiring can hold this very dangerous- 
looking insect in his hand for the wonder and 
admiration of less sophisticated friends, — 
only he must be sure to catch the right bee ! 




SWORDS, STINGS, AND DRILLS 103 

The wasps, which 
are near relatives of 
the bees, put their pow- 
erful stings to another 
use than punishing intruders, 
though they are not slow to do 
that as well ; but with them the 
sting is a spear sure to hit the mark, and 
with it they go hunting. For the wasp, un- 
like the grasshopper, cares for her young, 
which hatches into a very helpless infant 
indeed, closely resembling the far-away an- 
cestral worm, though much more helpless 
than that ever was. The mother wasp, realiz- 
ing the condition in which her offspring will 
enter the world, plans accordingly. Some 
wasps form communities similar to those of 
bees, and build nests, feeding their tender 
young as the birds feed theirs ; others live a 
solitary life, each one digging a hole in the 
ground for the reception of the egg and pro- 
visioning it carefully, knowing very well that 
a good supply of fresh food will soon be 
needed. Such are the big black wasps often 
seen digging holes in garden walks, — dig- 
ging, not with the ovipositor, but with the 
front feet, very much as an impetuous dog 
digs into a woodchuck hole. The nest com- 
pleted, off goes the wasp to the nearest 
hunting-ground, where she soon selects a 
plump grasshopper, pounces on him, stings 



I04 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

him relentlessly, and carries him home, not 
dead, but effectually quieted ; for the poison 
in the sting has the power of paralyzing the 
victim without killing it. In this convenient 
condition it is stored in the nest, an egg 
laid on it, and the hole covered up to await 
events. 

It is probable that thus originated the 
poisoned sting of all the bee-tribe — first a 
means of securing prey, afterwards a 
weapon of defence. For even the honey-bees 




have in all likelihood developed from insect- 
consuming ancestors, confining themselves at 
length to a diet of honey and pollen which 
they gather from the willing flowers with- 
out any need of poisoned sting, but keeping 
that as a memento of the past as well as an 
effective argument to vindicate their rights. 

The safe placing of the insect egg is a very 
important matter, for as Fall advances and 
the air grows cold, most of the insects perish, 
leaving only the little egg to continue their 
race the following year. The grasshoppers. 



SWORDS, STINGS, AND DRILLS 105 

in temperate climates, fall under the numbing 
hand of death as Summer closes, only an 
occasional one hiding away in some warm 
corner to come out again in the Spring. As 
a rule, all that remains of the populous grass- 
hopper world after the cold weather comes 
is countless collections of tiny eggs down in 
the earth and tucked away in rotten wood, 
in plant stalks, or on tree branches. The 
grasshoppers have passed away, leaving the 
earth sown with hopes for the future. 

When we walk over the winter fields, we 
think we are alone with the leafless trees and 
the snow-covered earth, but beneath our feet 
lie innumerable living eggs, grasshoppers in 
the seed, as it w^ere, waiting for the warm 
spring sunshine to touch the bushes and the 
grass to life and to wake these millions of 
eager creatures to come forth and begin their 
joyous career of gormandizing. Nor do they 
appear too soon. The first spring warmth 
does not stir their sluggish blood, for if they 
arrive before the foliage, starvation must be 
their portion ; so they wisely lie still until 
all nature has conspired to set their table and 
put their home in order; then out they come 
trooping, to hop, and then to fly and sing 
and mate and lay their eggs and die — the 
same cycle over and over, yet always new 
and wonderful 



IX 

THE FAMILY TREE 

THE more we poke about the mead- 
ows and hedgerows, peeping at the 
crickets, prying into the affairs of 
the grasshoppers, the more we are 
interested in this large and joyful family, and 
the more we are willing to know about them. 
A large family they indeed are, including 
some five thousand species ; and a very 
old family, which accounts for the extreme 
simplicity of their make-up as compared 
with later evolved and more complex insects. 
Their history dates back of Adam, being 
recorded somewhere in geology when the 
world was younger than it is to-day by 
several layers. The family has grown so 
unwieldy with its many branches that it 
would take more time and opportunity than 
most of us possess to know it all ; yet we can 
bring order out of chaos by thinking of it in 
groups, — large limbs of the family tree. 

If we are going to the root of the matter, 
we shall have to glance at the whole Order, 



THE FAMILY TREE 



107 



to which belong not only the grasshoppers, 

but certain relatives 

that have certain other 

characteristics, th o u g h 

lacking that apparently 

conclusive family trait, 

the jumping legs. 

But insect Orders are 
not founded on legs so 
much as on those later 
acquirements, the wings ; 
and it is the straight 
fan-like plaits of the hinder 
wings that have given to 
the honorable Order of 
Grasshoppers its name of 
Orthoptera, or straight 
wings. Not that this is the 
only point of resemblance; 
indeed, to the outsider it 
must seem very inade- 
quate, particularly as some 
members of the Order 
have no wings at all ; but 
since it is the custom to 
name insect Orders from 
some peculiarity of the 
wings, Orthoptera the 
grasshoppers and their 
near of kin are. Besides the wings there are 
other well-marked characteristics of structure 




io8 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

common to all members of the Order which 
show them all to have been descended from 
some far-away common ancestor, just as all 
our fancy pigeons with th.eir ruffs and fan- 
tails are the grandchildren many generations 
removed of the untamed and unadorned rock 
pigeon. 

. Now to the Orthoptera belong certain 
families that at first glance would seem to 
have no right there ; but 
a more careful examination 
w^ould show them to be of 
Orthopteran pedigree, only 
modified through long 
lapses of time in vari- 
ous ways to adapt them 
to the life they have 
chosen. 

Thus cockroaches are Orthopteran in- 
sects ; also the gentle walking-stick and the 
haughty mantis. 

To aid our memories, we may group these 
various forms into four divisions: Running 
Orthoptera, or cockroaches; Grasping Or- 
thoptera, or mantes; Walking Orthoptera, 
or walking-sticks and leaf-insects; Jumping 
Orthoptera, or grasshoppers, katydids, and 
crickets. 

Since the last group is altogether too large 
and complex for convenience, we may sub- 
divide it into three parts: (i) the Short-horned 




THE FAMILY TREE 109 

Grasshoppers, or locusts; (2) the Long-horned 
Grasshoppers, or meadow - grasshoppers, 
katydids, cricket-like grasshoppers, and 
shield-backed grasshoppers ; (3) the Crickets. 
Having them thus arranged in convenient 
groups, we can look at one after another with 
minds free from confusion. 



X 

THE SUCCESSFUL MANTIS 

OF all the tribe the least agreeable are 
the running Orthoptera, which in- 
clude the Croton bugs, or water 
bugs, as they are also called, — all 
of them cockroaches and all of them offensive, 
though as a family they are not entirely 
devoid of interest, however much we may 

detest them as in- 
dividuals. In fact, to 
'the entomologist they 
stand among the most 
interesting of all in- 
sects, and have been 
very carefully studied, 
their structure, w^hich 
is easily examined, 
having thrown much 
light on the history of 
insects. Nevertheless, our gratitude is so tem- 
pered with other emotions that we will say a 
cheerful good-bye to them and pass on to the 
mantis ; with him we will gladly linger, for 
though he may be intrinsically no better than a 




THE SUCCESSFUL MANTIS in 

cockroach, at least his ways do not offend 
us personally, but on the contrary are most 
amusing, while historically he is an insect 
of renown. 

A New Englander will look a long time 
before he finds a mantis in his native 
pastures ; in fact he may spent his life in the 
search with no better reward than Simple 
Simon had when he went to pick plums from 
a thistle. But a Georgian will have no 
trouble. Indeed, he need not even go to the 
mantis, the mantis will come to him ; for it 
is a common denizen of the South, and is 
often seen standing expectant on a vine 
before the door, striking its impressive atti- 
tude, with prayerful arms extended to em- 
brace a neighbor. 

No wonder this strange-looking object has 
excited fear or veneration in the mind of man 
from remotest times and in all countries, and 
no wonder it has brought upon itself such 
names as devil-horse, rear-horse, snake-doctor, 
and — more politely — prophet and sooth- 
sayer. These last two, entirely undeserved, 
only go to show how vastly appearances count 
in this credulous world, for because of its 
absurdly devotional attitude the mantis from 
time immemorial has been credited with su- 
pernatural power. It has also been received 
into good literature, even that of Anacreon 
the poet, who sang of it as the herald that 



112 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 



announces the coming of Spring; and of 
Theocritus, who in one of his idyls, with 
more poetry than truth, we hope, thus 
designates a slender young girl 
ith long thin arms. 

The name mantis 
is of Greek origin, 
and means diviner; 
and little as we may 
believe in the super- 
natural power of the 
grotesque 
insect, we 
must take 
offourhats 
to it when 
we learn 
that it w^as 
observed by 
the Greeks in 
soothsaying, 
even as the 
flight and motion 
of birds were ob- 
served ; and no 
doubt it was 
known and reverenced by those enthralling 
heroes that fill the ever-fresh pages of Homer. 
The mantis is found over most of the 
warm parts of the globe, and while with us 
it is a simple, unadorned creature, in some 




THE SUCCESSFUL MANTIS 113 

parts of the world it is most grotesquely 
ornamented with leaf-like excrescences on 
legs and body. 

Wherever found, its story is the same ; 
respect, fear, reverence, even worship being 
accorded to it. In South Africa, where it 
is called the god of the Hottentots, he who 
kills or hurts a mantis will never again be 
lucky and never again able to shoot an 
elephant or a buffalo. Many indeed are the 
travellers' tales of the regard felt by those 
people for the absurd little insect; yet it is 
not necessary to go to the Hottentots for 
proof of the veneration it is able to inspire, 
since among the legends of the gentle St. 
Francis we read that '' Seeing a mantis 
moving along in its solemn way, holding up 
its two fore legs as in the act of devotion, 
the Saint desired it to sing the praises of 
God ; whereupon the insect carolled forth a 
fine canticle." 

Besides figuring in matters of such moment, 
the mantis, like our daddy-long-legs, good- 
naturedly responds to a certain query, as is 
thus explained by a quaint old writer: ''So 
divine a creature is this esteemed, that if a 
child ask the way to such a place, she will 
stretch out one of her feet and show him the 
right way, and seldomme or never misse." 

The same writer continues doing more than 
poetic justice to the questionable manners of 

8 



114 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

the impostor: ''As she resembleth those di- 
viners in the elevation of her hands, so also 
in likeness of motion, for they do not sport 
themselves as others do, nor leap, nor fly, 
but walking softly she retains her modesty, 
and showes forth a kind of mature gravity." 

This very modest, grave, soft-moving 
insect so impressed the Moslem with its 
pious attitude that he venerated it as a 
fellow-worshipper and treated it with the 
greatest consideration. 

In many parts of the w^orld to kill or hurt 
a mantis is considered a great misfortune, 
to be followed by dire consequences, while 
to have it light on one is an omen of good 
luck. In our own South, however, the feel- 
ing with regard to it is not always one of 
pleasure ; to have it cross one's path is, at 
least in some sections, a sign of ill luck, 
while to see one flying is a sign that a 
snake is somewhere near, probably in need 
of its services, as it is believed to minister 
to sick snakes. In some parts of the South 
to have it alight on one is a sign of good 
luck, for if it settles on the hand one is to 
become acquainted with some distinguished 
person, while to have it settle on the head 
is a sign that one is soon to have some great 
honor conferred on him. To kill it is to 
invite misfortune, as the creature bears a 
charm against evil. 



THE SUCCESSFUL MANTIS 



115 



We, like the snakes, it is said, can profit 
by its curative power, though only by a 
display of the utmost ingratitude ; for, when 
afflicted with rheumatism, if we can screw up 
our courage to the point of biting off the 
head of the healer, it is believed we shall 
forthwith be made whole. 




Usually seen standing with the 
front part of the body raised and 
the long arms stretched out in an 
attitude of prayer, when it lowers 
the body and rests on the bent arms 
it produces an equally absurd effect 
of kneeling ; and our Southern negro 
has the pretty superstition that the 
creature kneels when it sees an angel or hears 
the rustle of its wings. 

There is no denying that the great eyes 
of the mantis, and its habit, shared by no 
other of its race, of turning its head sideways 
to look at you, give it a very intelligent ex- 
pression ; it is too bad to have to add to its 



ii6 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 



divine attributes the very unrighteous one of 
an inordinate love for fighting. It would 
rather fight than eat, and takes unbounded 
satisfaction in nipping off a neighbor's head. 
The female, being larger and stronger than 
the male, is often guilty of eating her mate ; 




^^^^>-w-~-^^'^ ^ ^ - 



and the young, if confined in the same cage, 
greedily devour one another. Two cannot 
live together in the same cage, for as soon 
as they see each other war is declared. Up 
go their heads, their fore legs are brandished, 
as though to say, '' Come on if you dare ! " 
Thus they wait, eying each other with the 
greatest ferocity, until one suddenly opens 



THE SUCCESSFUL MANTIS 117 

its wings and rushes savagely upon the 
other. They fence and strike with the sharp 
edge of the fore claws, one at length decap- 
itating or otherwise fatally wounding the 
other, when the conqueror, doubtless having 
whetted an always ready appetite by exercise, 
speedily devours the fallen hero. 

In Java, where the mantis is highly valued 
for its savage temper, the natives amuse 
themselves with mantis fights, just as people 
who consider themselves more civilized ex- 
tract pleasure from cock fights. The Jav- 
anese put up money on the result of the 
fight, quite after the fashion of their noble 
white-skinned brethren. 

Among the solemn-eyed Chinese a similar 
entertainment is said to be so popular that 
during the summer-time scarcely a boy is 
without his cage of insect prize-fighters. 
Even our little mantes are set to fighting by 
Southern boys ; and such is the creature's 
tenacity of purpose, or hatred, that having 
once taken hold, it will not let go until death 
or victory decides the contest. 

Our mantis, though large for an insect, is 
small compared with certain monsters in 
South America, which sometimes catch little 
birds in their fatal embrace. 

With its other peculiarities the mantis 
makes quite a charming pet, being easily 
tamed and not lacking in at least the 



ii8 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

semblance of affection for its owner. One 
appreciative mistress of a tame mantis has 
told the tale of its captivity so graphically 
that, having read it, one feels forever after a 
certain familiarity with the contradictory 
little creature, and a certain personal friend- 
ship for Queen Bess, which was the distin- 
guished name of the mantis in question. 

It would be a pity not to let the lady tell the 
story in her own words, which are as follows : 

" Queen Bess, of famous memory, would alight 
on my shoulder and take all her food from me half 
a dozen times a day. When she omitted her visit, 
I knew she had been hunting on her own account. 
All night long she would keep watch and guard 
under the mosquito-net, the silk thread that bound 
her being fastened to the post of the bed ; and woe 
betide an unfortunate mosquito who fancied for his 
supper a drop of claret; it was the drollest, the 
most laughter-moving sensation, to feel one of these 
trumpeters saluting your nose or forehead, and hear 
Queen Bess approaching with those long claws, 
creeping slowly, softly, nearer and nearer; to feel 
the fine prick of the lancet setting in for a tipple; 
then you would suppose a dozen fine needles had 
been suddenly drawn across the part ; then, presto ! 
Bess's strong, sabre -like claws had the jolly trum- 
peter tucked into her capacious jaws before you could 
open your eyes to ascertain the state of affairs." 

A truly useful pet, though some of us 
might have a troublesome prejudice against 
such a watch-dog tied to the bedpost ! 



THE SUCCESSFUL MANTIS 119 

Queen Bess, having a most decided per- 
sonality, could not bear to be slighted, and 
her faithful chronicler tells us: 




" As sure as she saw me bending over the mag- 
nifier with an insect, and I thought she was ten 
yards off, the insect would be incontinently snapped 
out of my fingers. Many a valuable specimen dis- 
appeared in this way. I learned to put her at these 
times in the sounding board of an ^^olian harp, 
which was generally placed in the window. Her 
Majesty liked music of this kind amazingly. I 
presume she imagined she was serenaded by the 
singing leaves of the forest. I knew she would 
have remained there spellbound until driven forth 
by hunger, if I did not remove her when I was 
not afraid of her company." 



I20 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 



Although one must doubt in this prosaic 
age the supernatural pow- 
ers of the mantis, it seems 
to have bewitched its mis- 
tress in thiscase, who with 
many apologies naively 
continues thus : 

have begun my ' ex- 
,' I will go through 
them and confess that 
I was obliged from 
circumstances to 
attach more than 
accident to her pro- 
phetic capacity — 
her fortune-telling. 
I have not a grain 
of superstition to 
contend against in 
other matters, 'hav- 
ing so much rever- 
ence for the Creator 
of all things that I 
certainly have no 
fear of an3'thing 
earthly or spirit- 
ually conveyed to 
the senses. But I 
was taught by the 
saddest teacher, 
Experience, that 
whenever Queen 
Bess's refusal went unheeded I was the sufferer. 




THE SUCCESSFUL MANTIS 121 

The first time I ever tried it was to determine a 
vacillating presentiment I felt about trying a new 
horse whose reputation was far from good. I placed 
Queen Bess before me, held up my finger: 'Atten- 
tion ! Queen Bess, would you advise me to try that 
horse ? ' 

" She was standing on her hind legs, her antennae 
erect, wings wide-spread. I repeated the question. 
Antennae fell; wings folded; and down she went, 
gradually, until her head and long thorax were 
buried beneath her front legs. I took her advice 
and did not venture. Two days later the horse 
threw his rider and killed him. 

" Here was the turning point. Was I to allow 
such folly to master me ? If FVench girls do take 
a mantis to the junction of three roads, and ask her 
on which their lover will come, and watch the insect 
turning and examining each road with her weird 
sibyl head, — if French girls commit such follies, 
should I, a staid American woman, follow their 
example, putting my faith in the caprices of an 
insect? Pshaw! I was above such folly. So the 
next time Queen Bess was consulted a more decided 
refusal was given ; but I disregarded her warning, 
and most sorely did I repent it. Again she would 
approve, by standing more erect, if possible, spread- 
ing and closing her wings; then all was sunshine 
with me. ... I never, in one single instance, knew 
her to refuse her opinion ; and I never knew it to 
be wrong in whatever way she announced it." 

Although we may not feel the same con- 
fidence in the divining power of Queen Bess, 
we are glad to have made the acquaintance 
of her Majesty. 



122 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

Our mantis is clad in sombre or quiet 
green, like the bushes she frequents ; but 
some of her tropical relatives are resplendent 
in bright colors,, an apparent defiance of Tate 
in the form of mantis-eating birds, until one 
realizes that these brilliant ones pass their 
time in showy orchids, whose colors they 
have borrowed as a safe though gorgeous 
disguise from both enemy and prey ; for as 
the unsuspecting honey-lover comes for 
orchid nectar, the lovely flower suddenly 
lets out two trap arms, and the honey- 
seeker is speedily converted into a feast 
for the voracious occupant of the terrible 
orchid. 

Living among the trees and bushes as it 
does, the mantis deposits its eggs in long 
clusters on the twigs, covering them with 
a tough waterproof substance, the mass of 
eggs having a curious braided appearance 
on top. 

The young mantis resembles its parent 
in appearance, though it begins life without 
wings. As soon as it is hatched it raises its 
tiny arms in supplicating attitude, and regales 
itself on whatever small insect it can clasp in 
its unbrotherly embrace. It is quite harmless. 
both physically and morally, in spite of all 
that has been said and sung to the con- 
trary, and it is our friend, not by virtue of 
banishing disaster by lighting on us, but 



THE SUCCESSFUL MANTIS 123 

because by living exclusively on insects it 
helps to keep those boundless ravagers in 
check. 

So here 's to Queen Bess and all her 
family ! May they live long and prosper ! 



XI 

HARMLESS FRAUDS 

THE summer sprites seem to be 
taking strange liberties with us, as, 
after lying on the warm earth and 
watching grasshoppers with most 
amusing but always comprehensible results, 
we one day see a twig detach itself from a 
bush and move off! Very likely our gaze 
had been idly fixed on that very twig when 
it startled us by coming to life, and we rub 
our eyes to see if we are perchance dream- 
ing. But the twig continues to move, and 
now we see it has legs and — in short it is 
not a twig, but a very cleverly disguised 
insect. 

Once informed that it belongs to the 
Orthoptera, there is no difficulty in believing 
its place to be in the division of Walking 
Orthoptera, as we watch it leisurely pursuing 
its way with equal legs, none of which show 
the slightest tendency to become modified 
into organs for grasping, jumping, or playing 
any other undignified pranks. It is the 
walking-stick, excellently well named, though 



HARMLESS FRAUDS 



125 



in spite of its mild temper it is evidently a 
near relative to 
the fiery mantis. 
Its family are all 
vegetarians, how- 
ever, which makes 
a difference. 

Although its 
name of walking-sti 
would seem to be su 
ciently comprehensive, 
is also known as t 
spectre, — an equal 
happy term, for if e\ 
there w^as a spectral foi 
it is this creature, that 
comes as near as possible 
to having no body at all. 
Its family name is Phas- 
midae, even the scientist 
feeling the spell. 

Lacking the fierce na- 
ture of its bloodthirsty 
relative, it also lacks the 
terrible arms, being as in- 
offensive as a creature well 
can be, and moving when 
disturbed in a jerky and 
stiff-jointed manner that 
suggests rheumatism ac- 
quired by much standing 




126 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

about in damp places. It resembles its 
cannibalistic cousin in preferring a slow and 
gentle gait to any sort of hurry; also in its 
style of dress, donning for its safety the 
quietest of greens and browns to deceive 
those birds that go prying about in search 
of insects for breakfast. 




Its thorax is as long and slender as its 
abdomen, yet it is a true thorax, to which 
three pairs of legs are attached, but at wide 
intervals instead of being grouped close to- 
gether; and as it so hates to exert itself it has 
entirely lost that glory of its race, — wings 
for flying. At least this is true of our New 
England variety, and even of many Southern 
forms, for the farther south we go the more 
often will the walking-stick cross our path. 



HARMLESS FRAUDS 127 

until when we reach the tropics we can if we 
like pick up one nearly a foot long ! Even 
at that illustrious size it will not hurt us, 
only sprawl about with its great legs in a 
manner that might be trying to some nerves. 

Our w^alking-sticks are not more than an 
inch and a half long, and since they have no 
wings whatever, are the oddest-looking of 
Summer's insect visitants. They eat the 
leaves of forest trees, and as a rule do no 
harm, though occasionally they become too 
abundant for the good of the tree, when there 
is nothing easier than to lay a staying hand 
on them, for they drop their eggs on the 
ground without the slightest regard to where 
they fall or what becomes of them. True, 
they provide against accidents by making 
up in numbers w^hat they lack in care, and 
so thick and fast do these eggs fall during 
the egg-laying season in a badly infested 
wood that they sound like rain pattering on 
the ground. The remedy is very simple: set 
a match to the dried leaves and underbrush 
in the Fall of the year. The eggs cannot 
live through fire, and thus a painless end is 
put to unborn thousands. 

Although our walking-stick prefers to pass 
through life without wings, those enviable 
possessions are the birthright of his family, 
and not all divisions of it have cast them aside. 
As we might expect from such odd-looking 



128 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 



creatures, the wings are wonderful to be- 
hold. If we think we see a twig move 
when our walking-stick changes his place, 
we might imagine the leaves had come to 




life when we see one of the winged forms 
suddenly start out on its travels. Flying is 
a secondary matter, to which wings may 
occasionally be put in time of need; but to 
keep safe hidden all the time, that is worthy 
of the most serious consideration, and the 



HARMLESS FRAUDS 129 

wings make admirable disguises if used 
aright. So in the East Indies we find a 
leaf-insect, so called, with his wings large, 
brown, and crumpled in the most absurd 
manner, giving him the protective if not 
handsome appearance of a dried and withered 
leaf. Others of this outlandish family do 
not adopt dried leaves as the model of dis- 
guise, but wear green wings variously veined 
and marked to resemble living foliage. " 

No wonder the simple native of the lands 
occupied by the deluding leaf-insect shares 
the opinion of the birds and declares that in 
his country the leaves come down from the 
trees and walk about. In his humble opinion 
the leaf-insect starts life as a vegetable, grow- 
ing from the tree like any other leaf, and 
when mature falls off, having by some natural 
process, which does not trouble his credulity, 
been transformed into an animal. It is only 
a step from this to the belief that the insect 
in time roots itself in the ground and again 
becomes a plant! 

It might not be difficult to find a credulous 
few, who are not natives of a tropical country 
and who live even in this day of universal 
knowledge, who hold a similar opinion con- 
cerning phenomena that could only be ex- 
plained by somewhat careful investigation; 
it is from a book written not so many years 
ago that we get in all seriousness and in 

9 



I30 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

full detail the modits operandi of such a 
metamorphosis : 

" Those little animals change into a green and 
tender plant, which is of two hands' breadth. The 
feet are fixed into the ground first ; from these, 
when necessary, humidity is attracted, roots grow 
out, and strike into the ground; thus they change 
by degrees, and in a short time become a perfect 
plant. Sometimes only the lower part takes the 
nature and form of a plant, while the upper part 
remains as before, living and movable ; after some 
time the animal is gradually converted into a plant. 
In this, Nature seems to operate in a circle, by a 
continued retrograde motion." 

To read so serious and circumstantial a 
description of this wonderful transformation 
almost makes us believe it in spite of mod- 
ern science, which has told us so much truth 
and spoiled so many pretty stories. 



XII 

THE MIGRATORY LOCUST OF THE EAST 

^MONG the Orthoptera, far and away 

/% the most celebrated are those be- 
/ ^ longing to the division of jumpers, 
and among these the short-horned 
grasshoppers or locusts are preeminent. 

If we glance back through our summer 
days, we shall remember that these are dis- 
tinguished by the antennae, which are shorter 
than the body ; the ovipositor, which is short 
and pointed, never long and sword-shaped or 
spear-shaped ; the feet, which have but three 
segments ; and the position of the ears, which 
is on the first ring of the abdomen just 
below where the wings are inserted. How- 
ever, for the wanderer over summer fields 
the short antennae are quite enough to tell 
who is who, these and the general coloring, 
which is a dull, dark brown, often relieved 
by dull green and sometimes touched up 
with red and yellow. 

As to the habits of the short-horned group, 
we remember they oviposit in the ground, 
laying masses of eggs covered with a gummy 



132 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

substance ; but at least one species drills 
holes in wood for the purpose of egg-laying. 
They are also the best jumpers in the field, 
their hind legs being thicker and more mus- 
cular than in the other grasshoppers, while 
the femur has a groove running its whole 
length on the inside into which the tibia fits, 
thus enabling these two parts to be drawn 
extraordinarily close together. To end the 
list of their peculiarities, they fly better than 
they jump, vying even with birds in their 
power of sustained flight, for the wings are 
long and supplied with very strong muscles. 

The whole insect appears to have been 
built for use rather than for looks, being 
much more compact and correspondingly 
less ofraceful than his lonc^-horned brother. 
Considering the part it has played in the 
world, it certainly has need of every advan- 
tage in strength and agility that nature can 
bestow, for the short-horned grasshopper is 
none other than that terrible scourge, the 
locust of history. Our large and noisy dog- 
day harvest-fly or cicada has become so 
identified with the name among us that in 
some places to speak of a grasshopper as a 
locust would be misleading in general con- 
versation. However, locust is the proper 
name of that sometimes fearful visitant, the 
short-horned grasshopper. 

According to some the word " locust " is 



MIGRATORY LOCUST OF THE EAST 133 



derived from the Latin words locus and 
usttis, meaning a burnt place, — sadly signifi- 
cant of the appearance of the land after the 
settling upon it of a cloud of these insects. 
Others say the word comes from the Latin 
locusta, meaning shell-fish, 
because of the shell-like 
covering of the creature. 
But whatever the origin 
of the name, it is only fair 
that it should remain at- 
tached to its rightful owner 
and not be foisted upon the 
innocent cicada 
that has done noth- 
ing to deserve 
the ignominious 
distinction. 

From the dawn 
of history to the 
present time the 
s ho rt- ho rn ed 
grasshoppe r 
has held a 
very high and 
unenvia b le 
place among 
the insects of the earth, vying with war 
and pestilence as destroyers of human life. 
The most renowned of the discreditable 
family are the so-called migratory locusts, 




134 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

which at times leave their birthplace in vast 
numbers and swarm over other lands. Of 
these there are several species, though they 
all look very much alike, the most justly 
celebrated being the migratory locust of 
Egypt, which is large of size, measuring from 
two and a half to three inches in length, and 
has a brown body marked with dark green, 
with long dirty-brown, black-spotted wings, 
and red tibiae. 

Of the appearance of this plague in Egypt 
and Palestine the Bible makes frequent men- 
tion, and in the Book of Exodus gives us 
one of the most vivid pictures in literature 
of the visitations of these pests : 

" And the locusts went up over all the land of 
Egypt, and rested in all the coasts of Egypt : very 
grievous were they; . . . For they covered the face 
of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; 
and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the 
fruit of the trees which the hail had left : and there 
remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the 
herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt." 

From the beginning of time Africa has 
been the teeming nursery whence issued 
devastating hordes. It seems at times as 
though the very sands of the desert must 
have come to life to pour over the lament- 
ing earth, while the desert winds lent their 
fury to spread the scourge even to far 



MIGRATORY LOCUST OF THE EAST 



135 



distant shores. The descriptions of devasta- 
tion and mortality incident upon the approach 
of these hosts of Satan read like fairy-tales, 
and stretch our imagination as well as our 
credulity, until the reports from later similar 
visitations within the sober realm of modern 
history leave us no reason to 
doubt the older chronicles. 

It frequently happened 
that the destroying hosts 
were finally carried by a 
hurricane into the sea, when 
the indignant waves cast 
their lifeless bodies back on 
the shore ; and it 




is doubtless this 
well-knowm disper- 
sal by sudden and 
violent winds 
which the prophet 
Joel has in mind 
when he makes the 
Lord promise re- 
lief to supplicating 
Judea in the fol- 
lowing exalted strain : 

"I will remove far off from you the northern 
army, and will drive him into a land barren and 
desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his 
hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall 
come up, . . . because he hath done great things." 



136 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

Great things indeed ; and his stink coming 
up has often presaged a calamity as terrible 
as that of his living presence. In one in- 
stance, after a devastating host of locusts 
had been blown into the sea from the coast 
of Africa, the polluted shore is depicted as 
emitting a stench greater than could have 
been produced by the dead bodies of one 
hundred thousand men. The result of this 
festering mass, added to the consequences 
of the famine caused by the living locusts, 
was a general pestilence so great that in 
Numidia eighty thousand persons are said 
to have died ; while on the seacoast near 
Carthage and Utica the mortality was still 
more incredible, among the victims being 
thirty thousand soldiers who, stationed at 
Utica, were destroyed so rapidly by the rag- 
ing plague that fifteen hundred are said to 
have been carried from one gate of the city 
in one day. 

This fearful picture is paralleled by another 
drawn as late as 1797, when '' two thousand 
square miles in South Africa were literally 
covered by locusts, which, being carried into 
the sea by a northwest wind, formed for fifty 
miles along shore a bank three or four feet 
high ; and when the wind was in the opposite 
point, the horrible odor which they exhaled 
was perceptible a hundred and fifty miles 
off." 



MIGRATORY LOCUST OF THE EAST 137 

Only a few years before this, from 1778 to 
1780, Morocco was devastated by locusts to 
such an extent that every green thing was 
eaten up, not excepting the bitter 
bark of the orange and pome- 
granate. The consequence was 
a terrible famine, in which such 
numbers perished that the roads 
were strewn with 
the unburied dead. 
So fearful was the 
suffering that fath- 
ers sold their chil- 
dren, and husbands 
their wives. Again, 




in 1779, Morocco was smitten from Moga- 
dora to Tangier, when it is said that the face 
of the earth was covered with locusts from 
the desert of Sahara to the sea. Finally a 



138 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

hurricane swept them into the water, when 
there followed the usual pestilence and 
mortality. 

Although Africa undoubtedly deserves its 
reputation of being the breeding place par 
excellence of devastating hordes of locusts, 
it is only fair to say at once that it does not 
monopolize the distinction ; Arabia, Persia, 
and many other parts of the world in both 
hemispheres have contributed innumerable 
hosts for the devastation of their own and 
other lands. 

It is a well-known fact that swarms of 
locusts have been blown, or at least helped 
by the wind, from Africa to Italy and Spain, 
whence they have gone farther north to 
devour yet more distant regions. 

There is on record such an occurrence in 
591, when Italy repeated the history of so 
many African towns, being first devoured 
by locusts, and then stricken by so great a 
plague, as a result of famine and the putre- 
fying masses of locusts piled on the sea- 
shore, that a million of men and cattle are 
said to have perished. 

Again, France in 872 was visited by such 
clouds of locusts that they darkened the very 
light of the sun and consumed every green 
thing. They were blown at last into the sea 
and cast back dead upon the shore, when 
there arose such a plague as a result of their 



MIGRATORY LOCUST OF THE EAST 139 

presence, living and dead, that every third 
person in France is said to have died of it. 
Again, in 1613, the locusts visited France, 
and about Aries completely destroyed fifteen 
thousand acres of grain. 

The Canary Islands, all too near the fatal 
continent, have been 
frequent suft"erers 
from African hosts. 




In 1649 ^he island of Tenerife was swept 
bare by them, and others of the islands were 
sorely troubled. We are told that the people 
saw them coming, gave the alarm, and, gather- 
ing together some seven or eight thousand 
soldiers from Tenerife and the neighboring 
island of Laguna, set them to work, not with 



I40 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

sword and gun this time, but with bags and 
spades, to face the formidable foe. Scouts 
posted on the hills gave the alarm when the 
flying columns alighted, and thither ran the 
strangely equipped army to gather their 
enemy by the bagful and bury them in 
trenches dug for the purpose. All availed 
naught ; they might as w^ell have tried to 
dip out the sea with a spoon. The locusts 
devastated the land for four months, causing 
fearful loss and misery. 

Glancing through the most easily acces- 
sible records, we find that from the time of 
the Pharaohs to the present day locusts have 
devastated dift'"erent parts of the world, nearly 
every country in Europe and Asia, also 
Australia, the Philippine Islands, Oceanica, 
Madagascar, all of Africa, many parts of 
South America, and portions of North Amer- 
ica having been laid waste by them, often to 
a fearful extent. 

Thus w^e read that in 1271 all the corn- 
fields of Milan were destroyed; in 1339 all 
those of Lombardy ; in 1476 Poland w^as 
wasted; in 1478 so great a famine was 
caused by locusts in the Venetian territory 
that thirty thousand persons are reported to 
have perished; in 1650 they entered Russia 
in immense numbers in three different places, 
and passed over Poland and Lithuania, where 
the air w^as darkened by their numbers ; in 



MIGRATORY LOCUST OF THE EAST 141 

many places they lay dead to the depth of 
four feet. Again they covered the surface 
of the earth so closely as to change its color; 
they loaded the trees, and destroyed every- 
thing before them. From 1744 to 1748 all 
Europe was laid waste by one of the most 
widespread and terrible invasions known to 
history, some stragglers even getting to 
England, while yet others crossed the Baltic 
and appeared in Sweden in 1749. From 
1754 to 1757 Spain was the subject of a 
fearful visitation, when the ravenous insects, 
finding their natural food-supply exhausted, 
fell upon anything they could bite ; entering 
the church of Almaden, they devoured the 
silk garments that adorned the images of 
the saints, even consuming the varnish on the 
altars. Indeed, in all countries the famished 
insects have added to their other exploits 
that of raiding the houses and consuming 
clothing and whatever else they could find. 

Thus we might go on endlessly in the 
story of devastation, imagining we were read- 
ing an old-fashioned history of Europe where 
the slaughter of nations was the principal 
theme. 

Looking to the East we find the story 
repeated. In the East Indies locusts have 
often caused such havoc as to compel the 
people to change their habitations, as has 
also happened in some parts of China, whose 



142 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

chronicles show devastations from this source 
recurring from the remotest times. The Phil- 
ippine Islands have borne their share of this 
strange and terrible burden. One man travel- 
ling in the island of Luzon in 1819 tells us 
that he was for hours protected from the sun's 
rays by a passing swarm, — a unique umbrella 
that fortunately is not opened over that de- 
voted land every year, though it is reported 
that Luzon is victimized once in about every 
seven years. 

In 1824, and again in 1871, Australia was 
devoured by her own migrants, which, com- 
ing from the arid plains to the north, swept 
southward like a consuming fire. The con- 
tinent of New Guinea has been ravaged 
again and again by incursions of foreign 
locusts, and often to such an extent that 
vast numbers of the natives have died from 
starvation and plague; while the misery in 
India from this cause almost or quite par- 
allels that of Africa. 

Nor are long and painful records wanting 
of visitations in our own country, where the 
suffering though sometimes extreme has 
never equalled that in less favored conti- 
nents ; for whatever we accomplish in the 
way of locust-raising at home, we are at 
least safe from the awful outpourings from 
Africa and Asia. 

Wherever the locust appears, not only does 



MIGRATORY LOCUST OF THE EAST 143 

man suffer the loss of his grains and fruits, 
but also of his flocks and herds, which die of 
starvation. The whole world might lament 
in the words of the prophet Joel, who, de- 
scribing the ravages of these 
pests in Judea, says : '' How 
do the beasts groan ! the 
herds of cattle are perplexed, 
because they have no pas- 
ture ; yea, the flocks of sheep 
are made desolate." 

The tales of the numbers 
of locusts in a single flight 
sound like the wild phan- 
tasies of a disordered mind, 
yet they come from sources 




too reliable and too modern to bear dispute. 
Thus we learn that in India some fifty years 
ago the whole Mahratta territory was rav- 
aged by a host supposed to have come from 
Arabia, of such incredible numbers that it 
extended over an area of five hundred square 



144 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

miles, and was so dense as to hide the sun 
sufficiently to prevent any object from cast- 
ing a shadow. In 1811 an incredible swarm 
visited India and the countries west of it. 
One traveller reports having ridden forty 
miles at right angles to the moving column 
before he got past it. This immense flight 
continued for three days and nights, and it 
was calculated that if the insects comprised 
in it could have been heaped up, they would 
have made a pile more than one thousand 
times the size of the largest pyramid of 
Egypt ; or if laid on the ground close to- 
gether, they would have encircled the globe 
in a band a mile and an eighth wide ! 

This swarm in the district Marwar caused 
such a famine that the natives fled in a body, 
pouring into Guzerat and Bombay, where it 
was estimated that out of every hundred, 
ninety-nine of them died that year. Near the 
town of Baroda the poor wretches died at the 
rate of five hundred a day; and at the town 
of Ahmedabad, out of two hundred thousand 
inhabitants, one hundred thousand died as a 
result of this awful visitation. Coming close 
to our own time, we learn that in November, 
1889, a swarm two thousand square miles in 
area crossed the Red Sea. 

Locusts do not fly in a dense mass like 
bees in a swarm, but allow space enough 
for the free motion of their wings ; many 



MIGRATORY LOCUST OF THE EAST 145 

eye-witnesses have compared a flight of them 
to a snowstorm as the light touched their 
glancing wings. At a distance the swarm 
resembles a dark cloud in the 
sky. When they alight it is 
as the falling of snow, cover- 




ing everything, often to the depth of several 
inches or even feet ; and travellers have had 
the unenviable experience of being '* snowed 
under" by a swarm of locusts suddenly de- 
scending upon them and their horses. The 
situation can be imagined when we realize 



10 



146 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

that an adverse wind may cause an unpre- 
meditated descent of the insects, which some- 
times pile up waist-deep over quite large 
areas ; and the Tartars affirm, and it is 
easily believable, that people are sometimes 
suffocated by them. 

A very graphic description of the rising 
and subsequent spreading out of a great 
swarm of locusts has been given by the nat- 
uralist Jaeger, who was an eye-witness to 
the phenomenon. He had been travelling in 
Asia with considerable difficulty because of 
the locusts that impeded his progress, and it 
was on an island in the Black Sea that he 
had what he calls a majestic view of a fly- 
ing swarm. Some five miles ahead of him 
there arose perpendicularly from the ground 
several thick and solid columns, like the 
smoke of a volcano. At a height of about 
five hundred feet these spread out like heavy 
dark clouds, which soon covered the w^hole 
sky, entirely obscuring the light of the sun. 
These apparent clouds proved to be swarms 
of locusts, which in a short time descended 
to the ground with a shrill, whistling noise, 
covering an immense extent of country. In 
a few moments the land was stripped bare 
of the thick and luxuriant grass that had 
covered it, making it as barren as a turnpike. 

Troops have been stayed on their march, 
as in the well-known instance of Charles XII, 



MIGRATORY LOCUST OF THE EAST 147 

King of Sweden, who, while retreating from 
Bessarabia in 1749, had his whole army 
brought to a standstill by the sudden de- 
scent of locusts upon them. Armies have 
been defeated, and in our day railway trains 
stopped, by this feeble folk whose strength 
is terrible because of their numbers. 

The noise of their flight almost passes 
words to describe. The poet Southey thus 
attempts to do it justice: 

'* Onward they came, a dark continuous cloud 
Of congregated myriads numberless, 
The rushing of whose wings was as the sound 
Of a broad river headlong in its course 
Plunged from a mountain summit, or the roar 
Of a wild ocean in the autumn storm, 
Shattering its billows on a shore of rocks ! " 

Others have compared the sound to that 
of a rushing railway train, or a whirlwind, 
or that made by the great grasshoppers of 
the Apocalypse, of whom it is written : ''And 
the sound of their wings was as the sound 
of chariots of many horses running to battle." 
The prophet Joel compares the sound of a 
flying swarm to the noise of chariots on the 
tops of mountains. And this noise is merely 
the rushing of myriads of wings through the 
air, as the migratory locusts do not sing 
during flight. 

More terrifying to the stricken people than 
the sound of their flight is the dread sound 



148 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 



of their feeding, for where those ravenous 
mouths have browsed will remain no blade 
of green, no grain to harvest, no fruit to 
gather. Where they are present in such in- 
credible numbers the sound of their eating 
is said to be distinctly audible ; some one 
has likened it to the noise made by little 
pigs munching corn, while others have 

more pathetically 
described it as re- 
sembling the sound 
of fire driven by the 
Vvdnd. 




Those who have not witnessed a flight of 
locusts may like to read a description of one 
which Darwin met with in the Argentine Re- 
public in 1853, the species which he describes 
being almost identical with the famous 
migratory locust of the East. 

" They appeared as a ragged cloud of a dark 
reddish-brown color. For some time we had no 
doubt but that it was thick smoke proceeding from 



MIGRATORY LOCUST OF THE EAST 149 

some great fire on the plains. Soon afterwards we 
found it was a pest of locusts. The insects overtook 
us, as they were travelling northward, by the aid of 
a high breeze, at the rate, I should suppose, of ten 
or fifteen miles an hour. The main body filled the 
air from a height of twenty feet to that, as it ap- 
peared, of two or three thousand above the ground. 
The noise of their approach was that of a strong 
breeze blowing through the rigging of a ship. The 
sky seen through the advance guard appeared like 
a mezzotint engraving, but the main body was im- 
pervious to sight. They were not, however, so 
thick but that they could escape from a stick moved 
backward and forward. When they alighted they 
were more numerous than the leaves in a field, and 
changed the green into a reddish color." 

Fortunately, the migratory locust does not 
remain long in strange lands, though it often 
breeds successfully for three or four years in 
its new home ; and so great is its fecundity 
that to exterminate it by finding and destroy- 
ing the eggs is, excepting in very favorable 
localities, an almost hopeless task. This 
the people of a devastated district in Hungary 
discovered in the Spring of 1 781, when, after 
disinterring and destroying millions of eggs, 
they yet found, when the hatching season 
arrived, many places in which the earth was 
covered with young locusts, so that not a 
single spot was left bare. 

Where the insects have selected their breed- 
ing ground the eggs may often be ploughed 



I50 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

up in apparently solid masses over large 
areas. Egg-collecting is one of the methods 
employed by all peoples to abate the nui- 
sance. In 1613, during an invasion into 
France, orders having been issued by the 
government for the collection of eggs, more 
than three thousand measures were taken, 
each measure containing something like two 
millions of eggs, the total being the pretty 
sum of six billions of eggs ; and it is less 
than forty years ago that sixty-two tons of 
eggs were collected and destroyed in the Isle 
of Cyprus, representing something like fifty 
billions of locusts ; while, if the reports can be 
trusted, in 1881 that island broke the record 
with thirteen hundred tons of these eggs ! 
After this, the toll of eighty thousand sack- 
fuls, collected in four days by the people of 
an infected district of Italy, seems moderate. 
Very large sums of money have been ex- 
pended by different governments in payment 
for the collection of locusts' eggs, as well 
as for that of the insects themselves. We 
can hardly wonder that a creature endowed 
with such terrific fecundity should plume 
itself occasionally upon its power in the 
world, as is told in an ancient Arabian legend 
of a locust that thus vaingloriously addressed 
Mohammed: 

" We are the army of the great God, we pro- 
duce ninety-and-nine eggs; if the hundred were 



MIGRATORY LOCUST OF THE EAST 151 

completed, we should consume the whole earth and 
all that is in it." 

As a matter of fact, the migratory locust 
of the East does often produce the hundred, 
and even far exceeds that creditable limit; 
where he alights he consumes the earth and 
all that is in it, though fortunately not all of 
it at a time. It is but fitting that a foe of 
such importance should at times have been 
attacked in warlike manner, and many are 
the chronicles of winged hosts having been 
assaulted by the armies of the kings of 
earth. 

The weapons so prized in shedding human 
blood, however, are powerless when turned 
against the hosts of the air, upon whose 
ranks they have not the slightest effect, darts 
of all kinds returning harmless to earth, 
while even gun shots and assaults by cannon 
merely divide the column for a brief moment, 
when it closes up again and sweeps on its 
course triumphant. 

More sensibly, abandoning the useless 
methods of human warfare against an in- 
human foe, the soldier has been armed with 
weapons less impressive yet better adapted 
to the tactics of the enemy. One can im- 
agine the scene in certain parts of Spain 
when, the word having come that locusts 
had appeared, the gallant soldier boys were 
ordered out and divided into companies that 



152 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

surrounded the infested district. Every man 
was furnished with a long broom, with which 
he wxnt about thrashing at the ground and 
thus driving the young locusts toward a com- 
mon centre, where w^as a great pit prepared 
to receive them, and where, having fallen in, 
they were mercilessly consumed by a fire of 
brushwood. Three thousand men, part peas- 
ants, part soldiers, were thus employed in 
1780 for three weeks at Zamora, and the 
result of their raid exceeded ten thousand 
bushels of captured, condemned, and exe- 
cuted; while in 1783 four hundred bushels 
more were collected and destroyed in one day. 

The government of Transylvania in 1780 
ordered fifteen hundred persons to gather 
each a sackful of the locusts that appeared 
in alarming numbers in a certain district. 
The insects thus collected were destroyed, 
but with very little effect, so overwhelming 
were their numbers. 

It was about fifty years later than this 
that the largest army of soldiers we have any 
record of was sent out against the locusts, 
and it is again the naturalist Jaeger who tells 
the story. It was in the month of April, 
1825, when he was travelling post-haste from 
Moscow to Crimea, that he found the people 
in great distress of mind because of the in- 
credible numbers of wingless locusts that 
had appeared upon certain desert prairies 



MIGRATORY LOCUST OF THE EAST 153 

between Kiew and Odessa, and in other parts 
of the Russian Empire. Well the people 
of the cultivated regions knew what would 
happen as soon as the ravenous hordes got 
their wings. The traveller in course of time 
reached the infested dis- 
trict, when his speed was 
suddenly checked. The 
ground as far as the eye 
could reach was covered 
with winglesslocustsnearly 
two inches long, 
which lay piled 
one upon another 
to a height of two 
feet, retarding the 




^xyjl^kT^i^ >'l 



progress of the carriage, which dragged 
heavily as though being drawn through a 
deep mould. The horses could not even walk 
fast, much less trot, and the wheels were 
constantly covered from two to three inches 
deep with crushed locusts. This state of 



154 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

things continued for a distance of about four 
hundred miles. One cannot wonder that 
the people were alarmed. 

Against this incredible army of locusts the 
Emperor Alexander of Russia sent an army 
of thirty thousand soldiers, which presented 
literally ''a broad front" — spreading out for 
several hundreds of miles. Advancing, armed 
with sacks and shovels, the brave soldiers 
fell upon the foe, capturing as many as they 
could and destroying them by fire. We are 
not surprised to learn that notwithstanding 
this onslaught enough locusts escaped to 
get their wings and lay waste large tracts of 
country. 

In 1835 ^he locusts were so threatening 
in certain districts of China that the military 
were ordered out and a bounty was put on 
the captures made. Out went the pictur- 
esque community and fell to with such a 
will that the bounty w^as soon lowered. 
Then, strange as it may seem, the locust 
gatherers struck, proving that there is a 
wage limit below which even a Chinaman 
will not work. In this case the strike re- 
flected doubly hard on the strikers, for 
the pygmy enemy ravaged their fields 
unmolested. 

Every conceivable device has been tried 
against the invading hosts, which not even 
the highest mountains can stop, though at 



MIGRATORY LOCUST OF THE EAST 155 

least one range is reported to have proved 
a help to man in repelling the would-be in- 
vaders; for it is said that by building great 
fires on those points of the Atlas Mountains 
over which the locusts are known always to 
pass, and at the season when they are likely 
to appear, the Arabs warded off the scourge 
from all the countries north and west of this 
great range. The mountains being high, 
with snow-capped peaks, the insects became 
chilled in passing over, and, attracted by the 
glare of the fire, plunged recklessly into 
the flames. So long as the Sultan paid for 
the maintaining of these fires not a locust 
passed the mountain barrier, but when, find- 
ing his territories quite free from the scourge, 
he ceased taking what seemed a needless 
expense, that same year he was punished by 
the appearance of the locusts, which have 
laid waste his lands ever since. 

Laws have been enacted from all time 
to compel the people to try to mitigate the 
curse of locusts ; and Pliny says : 

" In the Granaicke region within Barbarie, or- 
dained it is by law, every three years to wage warre 
against them, and so to conquer them. Yea, and a 
grievous punishment lieth upon him that is negli- 
gent in this behalf, as if he were a traitor to his 
prince and country. Moreover, within the Island 
Lemnos there is a certain proportion and measure 
set down, how many and what quantity every man 



156 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

shall kill ; and they are to exhibit unto the magis- 
trate a just and true account thereof, and namely, to 
show what measure full of dead locusts. . . . More- 
over, in Syria they are forced to levie a warlike 
power of men against them, and to make riddance 
by that means." 

As the law of peace prevails over all the 
earth it may come to pass that the army of 
the future will be organized against the 
locust alone. Going forth bravely, equipped 
with weapons that bear no resemblance to 
firearms, the valiant soldiers will return to 
answer to a roll-call in which no name shall 
be missing, no lives lost on the side of the 
besieged against millions slain on that of the 
besiegers, — an unequal contest in which 
the lack of military glory^ will be offset by 
human lives saved instead of destroyed. 



XIII 

WHENCE THEY COME AND WHITHER 
THEY GO 

THE coming of the locust is a visita- 
tion as mysterious as it is terrible. 
To-day the land lies wreathed with 
vines, smiling with golden promise 
of fruits and grain, — to-morrow hundreds 
of square miles may lie black and wasted, 
with not so much as a blade of grass or 
a green leaf to show that Summer is here. 
The people, at one moment care-free and 
happy, the next mad with terror, leave their 
homes and, with their little ones about them, 
rush blindly away to find if possible before 
starvation stops them an uninfested dis- 
trict where they can get food enough to sus- 
tain life. On the other hand, the destroying 
swarm may leave as suddenly as it came ; 
and it is this well-known habit to which the 
prophet Nahum refers when foretelling the 
destruction of the Assyrians : 

" Thy crowned are as the locusts, and thy cap- 
tains as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the 
hedges in the cold day ; but when the sun ariseth 
they flee away, and their place is not known where 
they are." 



158 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

Having done their work of destruction, they 
occasionally disappear entirely, and years may 
elapse with no sign of them ; then, without 
a moment's warning, the dread scourge falls 
upon the doomed fields like rain from heaven. 

What wonder that from all time the ap- 
pearance of the locusts has excited the minds 
of men as other great universal calamities 
have excited them ? What wonder that the 
highest pitch of eloquence was reached in 
portraying the hordes that so grievously 
overran Egypt in Bible times? Nothing in 
all literature surpasses in simple grandeur 
the following description by the prophet Joel, 
where the locusts are depicted as strong 
warriors coming in mighty armies to lay 
waste the land : 

" A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of 
clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread 
upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; 
there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be 
any more after it, even to the years of many gener- 
ations. A fire devoureth before them ; and behind 
them a flame burneth ; the land is as tlie Garden of 
Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wil- 
derness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. The 
appearance of them is as the appearance of horses ; 
and as horsemen, so shall they run. Like the noise 
of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, 
like the noise of a fiame of fire that devoureth the 
stubble; as a strong people set in battle array. Before 
their face the people shall be much pained : all faces 



WHENCE THEY COME 



159 



shall gather blackness. They shall run like mighty 
men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and 
they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall 
not break their ranks. Neither shall 
one thrust another; they shall walk 
everyone in his path : and when they 
fall upon the sword, they shall not be 
wounded. 

" They shall run to and fro in the 
city; they shall run upon the wall, 
they shall climb up upon the houses; 
they shall enter in at the windows 
ike a thief. The earth shall quake 
before them ; the heavens shall trem- 
ble ; the sun and the moon shall be 
dark, and the stars shall withdraw 
their shining.' 




Flyingasthe locusts 
often do at immense 
hei 
sibl 
tainty 



of the world they hail ; for while they are gener- 
ally seen at an elevation of from forty to four 
hundred feet, they not infrequently rise to five 



i6o GRASSHOPPER LAND 

hundred or eight hundred feet, or under certain 
circumstances even to two miles. High red- 
dish clouds have been seen which when ex- 
amined by the telescope proved to be nothing 
more nor less than a flight of locusts, bound 
who shall know whither, to lay waste what 
distant lands. And those watching with the 
telescope have seen swarms pass at a height 
Avhich made them quite invisible to the in- 
habitants of the earth below. Even snow- 
clad mountains, as we have already had 
evidence, do not stop them. Once a large 
swarm Avas seen high above a peak of the 
Rocky Mountains, a peak that towered eight 
thousand five hundred feet above the plain 
below and fourteen thousand five hundred 
above the level of the sea. in a region of 
perpetual snow. At these enormous heights 
the locusts are doubtless borne along by 
upper air currents, as the wind always plays 
an important part in their long journeys. 

Where do these hosts originate? That is 
a question which has often been asked. The 
interior of Africa, of Arabia, certain sterile 
parts of Asia, waste lands to the west of 
Brazil or in Bolivia, and the arid lands ad- 
jacent to the Rocky Mountains are known to 
send forth vast swarms of mio-ratino; locusts. 
^Moreover, these sections are never entirely 
free from them, so that they may be looked 
upon as the permanent home of the species. 



WHENCE THEY COME 



i6i 



As to why the locusts migrate, the most 
probable explanation is that they do so only 
when they have multiplied so excessively at 
home that it is go or starve. Or, since the 
eggs succeed best in warm, dry soil, may it 
be that the insects congregate 
from neighboring and com- 
paratively distant fertile tracts 
to lay their eggs ? Certain it 
is that the vast hordes seem 
always to come out of a des- 
ert ; but by this it is not to be 
understood that they ever lay 
their eggs in shifting sand, for 
that would be fatal. 
They choose hard, 
dry soil sparsely 
covered with vege- 




tation, and such they can find in abundance, 
either on the confines or in the interior parts 
of all the great deserts. 

Where the enormous swarms spend their 
time before the wings have developed, and 



II 



i62 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

whether the immense flights are a single 
community or made by the joining of several 
communities, are questions hard to answer. 
What we do know is that they cannot prosper 
many successive years away from home, and 
in nearly all cases of colonization, after from 
three to seven years the imported nuisance 
disappears, apparently from natural causes. 
The climate does not agree with them, or 
they or their eggs are attacked by disease 
or parasite, and the plague sometimes ceases 
almost as suddenly as it appeared ; too often, 
however, not until it has wrought terrible 
havoc in the stranger's land. 

The flights of locusts, destructive as they 
often are, are less to be dreaded than the 
armies of young unfledged insects. The fly- 
ing swarm often passes over a fertile region 
without alighting, perhaps being intoxi- 
cated with the streaming motion of their own 
immense numbers. Again, they may stay 
but a short time and eat little or sometimes 
even nothing at all, apparently merely rest- 
ing in order to go on their strange way again. 
At other times, being hungry, they may 
destroy vast regions before they finally take 
to wing. In yet other cases they alight and 
deposit their eggs ; and may it not be that 
these immense swarms, following the in- 
stinct of all creatures to provide for their 
young, and realizing the desperate state of 



WHENCE THEY COME 



163 



affairs at home, are winging their way over 
the face of the earth in search of a well- 
provisioned land and a suitable hatching- 
ground where they may de- 
posit their eggs ? Certain 
it is that somewhere in their 
mad career they pause for 
this purpose, and woe to the 
land they select ! Not only 
must it support the ravening 
horde when it alights, but the 
following years are sure to 
be years of famine. 

Knowing this, from all 
time the people, as we have 
seen, have tried to collect the 
^SS^y — ^ hopeless 
task in many cases, 
since it is impossi- 
ble over a wide area 
to discover all the 
waste places selected 






for egg-laying purposes. The gregarious in- 
stinct, which is what makes the locust so 
dangerous, causes the females to congregate 
in one place for oviposition ; and often the 




i64 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

holes are bored so close together that the 
nests, as they are called, touch each other, 
thus making what is practically a solid mass 
of eggs, which sometimes covers large areas. 

Coming out of the nesting-ground, the 
young insect is a most insignificant and 
comical-looking affair, or would be if the' 
terrified beholder could forget the meaning 
of those pale and wriggling mites which 
even at that tender age cover the ground upon 
which they rest and which will soon grow 
dark-colored and firm on their legs. 

The young locust eats what is within 
reach until after the first skin is shed, when, 
if food is abundant, it will linger around 
its nursery for some days or even until after 
the second or third moulting. Then it 
grows restless ; perhaps its instinct informs it 
that this foreign land is not its true home, 
that its race cannot thrive here indefinitely; 
and one day, by common consent, the whole 
congregation of infants takes up the march. 
Millions, billions strong these Voetgangers, 
as the Dutch of South Africa call them, walk 
along, head erect, eyes fi.xed. On they march 
in one undeviating course, an admirable and 
pretty sight — if again one could forget. 
Their great business in life now is to eat, and 
on they march remorseless as death. It is 
impossible to turn one of these absurd armies 
by any kind of force, though the lamentable 



WHENCE THEY COME 165 

babies can be coaxed to follow sometimes, 
by the judicious waving of bright flags. If 
force be used, they easily become confused 
and discouraged, and hop wildly in all direc- 
tions, but eventually settle down and walk on 
in exactly the path they first chose. No man 
can stop them, and no man can turn them, 
unless they allow themselves to be cajoled 
into a new course; but they often voluntarily 
change for reasons unknown to us. Yet 
sometimes so insensate is their determina- 
tion not to turn their direction that they 
plunge into streams of water, which they can 
swim if not too wide, though usually such 
a catastrophe results in the loss of many 
unlamented lives. 

As they go they devour the earth beneath 
them, swarm over every bush, and climb 
every tree, until not a green thing is left, and 
the place behind them looks as though a fire 
had passed over it. Eating thus, they grow 
fast and eat ever more voraciously. They 
advance more or less rapidly according to 
the obstructions to be surmounted, where the 
way is clear covering a distance of two miles 
a day, otherwise making slow progress, per- 
haps not going over half a mile in their day's 
journey. Generally they stop at night, and if 
it is cold they pile up together to keep warm ; 
on warm nights they may pass the pleasant 
hours in uninterrupted gormandizing. 



i66 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 



Finally, after a period of seven or eight 

weeks, the wingless hosts pass their last 

moult, find themselves full-fledged, feel the 

desire of the new wings — and then, the 

place that knew them, but did not want 

to, will know them no more forever. 

Away they go, all together in a loose 
cloud — wings spread, almost always 
heading down the wind. After all, 
they seem to be a lazy generation, 
flying only when there is a breeze to 
help them, and when there is a high 




wind trimming their sails, and taking no 
further concern in the matter. For at such 
times they may be seen faced against the wind, 
wings spread, drifting backward on the aerial 
current. In this lazy way they often make 
a pleasant trip of twenty miles in a day. 



WHENCE THEY COME 167 

It will occur to every one that the time to 
intercept the high-handed doings of the locust 
is in the walking stage, but whoever watches 
for the first time one of these armies on the 
march will have the same feeling of helpless- 
ness before them that he would have if put 
on the seashore and requested to prevent the 
sand from drifting in when the wind blows. 
Yet this is the time of all times to get the 
upper hand. If they are infesting a district 
of low shrubs or scrub, a running fire will 
humble their pride; if they are on open 
pasture, herds of cattle, sheep, and horses 
may be stampeded back and forth until they 
have trampled them to death ; or they may 
be mercilessly and fatally flattened under 
great rollers drawn by horses over the ground. 
Again, troops of farmers or soldiers may be 
called into requisition, armed with the various 
implements recently devised for collecting 
them wholesale. Where they are marching 
in vast numbers, the whole army may some- 
times be captured by an ingenious device 
that works miracles under the right condi- 
tions — concerning which more presently. 

While in most cases the migratory locust 
dies out after a few years' occupation of a 
foreign home, it sometimes happens that a 
swarm may find a place so well suited to 
its needs that it takes out papers of natur- 
alization, so to speak ; then the land of its 



i68 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

visitation becomes its permanent home, from 
which it can be dislodged only by the most 
persistent and heroic efforts. 

Such is the beautiful Isle of Cyprus, whose 
history from all time has been closely inter- 
woven with that of the migratory locust. 
Crossing over from the Caramanian Moun- 
tains of Turkey, the swarms not only devas- 
tated the island for the moment, but finding 
a favorable breeding-place in its eastern table- 
lands, took up permanent abode there, whence 
they sallied forth on foraging expeditions 
every season, until routed by the outraged 
inhabitants. 

So terrible were the visitations from 141 1 
to 1413 that, as we learn from the old chroni- 
cles, every tree in the country was perfectly 
leafless. But at a later date this was not 
the only sorrow brought by the scourge. 
Probably no insect has so distinguished itself 
in the political life of a country as has this 
locust of Cyprus. Adding moral injury to 
physical, it has lent itself to be the wicked 
tool of a corrupt government. Owned by all 
the dominant nations of the world, — Phoeni- 
cians, Greeks, Egyptians, Persians, Arabians, 
Romans, one after another, — Cyprus w^as 
conquered by the Crusaders in 1171, under 
Richard I, and by them retained for three 
centuries. Then Venice acquired it, and in 
1571 it fell under the Turkish yoke, which 



WHENCE THEY COME 169 

was its death-knell. For until that time, in 
spite of recurring ravages from locusts, it 
was a happy, thriving, and beautiful land ; 
thereafter, for more than two hundred and 
fifty years, it lay a desolate wilderness. Its 
population melted away ; its flourishing vil- 
lages became mere names, only mounds exist- 
ing to show where once the homes of the 
natives had stood; its forests disappeared; its 
fertile acres became waste land. Such people 
as remained were reduced to a condition of 
most abject poverty, excepting a few large 
landholders who could protect themselves 
more or less successfully from the inroads of 
the locusts, which were the ostensible cause 
of the reigning desolation. 

The real cause, however, was a corrupt 
government, those in power refusing to do 
anything to abate the plague. They were 
able to live comfortably at the expense of 
the people, who collected locusts as a means 
of subsistence, the amount paid for this use- 
less work after sifting through the hands of 
the government officials barely sufficing to 
keep the workers alive. The years from 
1800 to i860 were particularly trying to the 
starving natives, who at times had no other 
food than the bulbs of the squill. 

The action of the Turkish government is 
the more inexcusable because a method for 
destroying the locusts was discovered by 



I70 GRASSHOPPER LAx\D 

Count Mattel, a rich landowner, and declined 
with no better reason than that, if the egg- 
collecting system were stopped, a few high 
in power would be deprived of their gains ! 

Under the circumstances the island was 
worthless to the Turkish Empire, and was 
finally ceded to Great Britain, when, after 
its long period of darkness, the sun rose 
again on lovely Cyprus. Not only were 
the eggs now collected with unheard-of thor- 
oughness, but w^hen the armies of young 
locusts began to march one Spring the plan 
of Count Mattel for capturing them in toto 
was successfullv carried out. 

Count Alattel, having noticed that the 
saltonas, or hoppers, as the wingless young 
were called, could climb the wall thirtv feet 
high that surrounded his residence, experi- 
mented by making a perfectly smooth border 
of cement a few inches wide around it, which 
proved an effectual barrier to their progress. 
Fortunately for Cyprus, the foot-pads of the 
tormentor were defective, and this saved the 
country. 

Count ^^lattei's simple device, refused a 
trial by the Turkish government, was adopted 
under the British in 1883. The walls of the 
villages were made perfectly smooth for a 
short distance above the ground. Where 
there were no walls, screens about a yard 
high were made of calico stretched tight, 



WHENCE THEY COME 171 

with three inches of smooth oilcloth fastened 
to the upper margin on the side facing the 
coming army. Three hundred and eighteen 
miles of these cloth screens faced the advanc- 
ing foe. At short intervals pits were dug, sur- 
rounded by a band of tin that projected some 
three inches over the opening, the other edge 
being held down and covered with earth. 
Of these there were sixty-five thousand. 

One can imagine the appearance of the 
country and the excitement of the people. 
On came the armies, marching, marching, 
as numberless as the sands of the seashore. 
Behind them black devastation ; before them 
the green crops of the people ; and between 
— the apparently meaningless cloth walls. 

The first one was reached. The lower 
edges of all of them were covered with earth 
to prevent the hoppers from going under. 
The advance guard promptly walked up the 
obstruction. All went well until the smooth 
oilcloth was reached ; then the climbers could 
not go on. Those behind pressed forward; 
the leaders lost their footing and fell to the 
ground ! Presently there was a windrow 
of struggling insects, many of which in try- 
ing to escape, fell into the pits and could 
not get out because of the smooth, project- 
ing tin. Now the ready enemy charged 
upon the bewildered intruders with brooms 
and shovels, quickly filling the pits and 



172 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

destroying the terrified prisoners as fast as 
possible. 

Thus perished fifty-five thousand pitfuls, 
about one hundred and ninety-five billions of 
locusts in one season. 

The whole population were called into 
requisition, not only to attend the pits, but 
to wage war wherever a locust was to be 
seen. Trees and bushes covered with them 
were set on fire; places unsuited to the use 
of the fences and ditches were cleared by 
hand ; the districts where the eggs were laid 
were ploughed up, horses, oxen, every instru- 
ment that could be of use was drafted into 
the service in that famous campaign. 

In one single year British enterprise and 
honesty stamped out the scourge that had 
made of Cyprus a wilderness for two centuries 
and a half. Since then there have never been 
enough locusts to make recourse to the fence- 
and-ditch method necessary, such as appear 
being readily kept in check by simple gather- 
ing, and Cyprus once more graces with her 
old charm the lovely southern sea. 



XIV 

LOCUSTS AS FOOD 

FEARED and hated as the locusts 
are in so many parts of the world, it 
is refreshing to turn another leaf in 
their history and find them, not ex- 
actly the darling of nations, but at least 
eagerly looked for and joyously welcomed 
when they come. In some places, even 
where they devour every green thing, they 
are received with demonstrations of exces- 
sive joy, and there is no doubt that the con- 
jurors from the beginning of time have 
invoked their coming. 

The reason for this apparent inconsist- 
ency if not romantic is at least comprehen- 
sible — the eater becomes the eaten. For 
be it known that the fat and well-fed locust 
is himself a delicious tidbit in some discrim- 
inating parts of the world. The Arabs have 
always been fond of locusts, eating them as a 
delicacy even when they had other food, and 
in most of the Oriental countries they are 
more or less highly esteemed. Indeed, they 
sometimes become the chief article of diet, 
while it is said that in some places they are 



174 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

the permanent reliance of the people — being 
to them what bread is to the European. 

Africa is a locust-eating continent, so far 
as the native populace are concerned, and 
if we will but think of . the matter fairly, 
there is no more objection to eating good 
vegetable-fed locusts than shrimps or lobsters 
or oysters, or that highly esteemed delicacy 
of epicures, the soft-shelled crab. As we do 
not eat the legs of crabs, neither do those 
others eat the legs or wings of the locusts; 
these are thrown aside, only the succulent 
body being retained, — a costly tidbit if it 
were as much trouble to catch a locust as 
to catch a crab; but as it is, they form the 
abundant and untaxed bread of the people. 

Locusts are always eaten cooked, and there 
are various ways of preparing them, all more 
or less simple. In Barbary the usual way 
is to boil them half an hour ; remove head, 
wings, and legs ; sprinkle the rest with salt ; 
and fry, adding a little vinegar. This dish 
is so relished that it is even served at times 
when there is abundance of other food, and 
we are told that one may eat a plateful of 
these delicacies, to the number of two or three 
hundred, without experiencing any ill effect. 
We are also informed that the epicurean 
Moor prefers them to pigeons, finding them 
more stimulating. 

Such luxury as this, however, is quite 



LOCUSTS AS FOOD 175 

beyond the poor Bedouin of the desert, who 
often welcomes a flight of locusts as a means 
of saving him from starvation. He catches 
his locusts in bags and pours them alive 




into a pit heated for the purpose, just such 
a pit as every woodsman knows how to dig 
and heat for cooking beans or other forest 
fare in our own country. Once in, the locusts 
are covered with sand, a fire is built above 
them, and they are thoroughly roasted. After 
they have cooled, they are taken out and 



176 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

spread upon tent cloths or blankets, and put 
in the sun to dry. This takes two or three 
days, during which they have to be carefully 
watched to save them from being consumed 
by their cannibalistic brothers, in case another 
flight should appear upon the scene. When 
they are thoroughly dry, they are pounded 
slightly, and put into bags or skins to be kept 
until needed. When about to be eaten, they 
are ground in mortars and mixed with water 
into a thick paste. It is not necessary to 
make these latter preparations, however, as 
the locusts are relished dry, the legs, wings, 
and head being first broken off. 

Many times the natives of Northern Africa 
catch them in kirge numibers and throw them 
alive into boiling oil, where they remain hiss- 
ing and frying until their wrings are burned 
off and their bodies thoroughly cooked, when 
they are taken out and eaten. An observer 
tells us that they resemble in consistency 
and flavor the yolks of hard-boiled hen's eggs ; 
others compare the flavor of the cooked 
locusts to that of prawns. 

Another w^ay to prepare locusts as a table 
delicacy is to pound them and boil them in 
milk. The more prosperous Arab eats his 
fried locusts for breakfast, spread over un- 
leavened bread and mixed with butter. 

In Central Africa a traveller saw whole 
calabashes filled with roasted locusts, which 



LOCUSTS AS FOOD 177 

sometimes form a large part of the native 
diet, particularly after the grain has been 
destroyed by the pests. We can imagine 
the added relish given to this dish spiced 
by revenge. 

The Hottentots are among those who re- 
joice when the locusts come, for though they 
destroy every green thing, they constitute a 
delicious morsel. They are so greedily eaten 
that in a few days the gormands grow visibly 
fatter and better conditioned, and in years 
of scarcity the rain-doctors undertake to bring 
a supply of the favorite food by means of 
incantations. As soon as locusts are re- 
ported the natives hasten to the spot, some- 
times going quite long distances, and often 
taking pack oxen to carry back the spoil. 

The insects are boiled or steamed, and 
then dried in the sun and winnowed some- 
thing like corn, to separate them from the 
legs and wings. When quite dry, they are 
stored away in sacks or laid in piles on the 
house floor. The natives eat them as they 
are, with salt if they can get it, or else they 
pound them in wooden mortars and mix the 
locust meal thus produced with water into 
a *' cold stirabout." 

The Bushmen also grind their dried 
locusts between two stones into a coarse 
meal, which they mix with fat and grease 
and bake into cakes. Upon this stimulating 



12 



178 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

bread we are told they live for months to- 
gether; and they chatter with the greatest joy 
as soon as the locusts are seen approaching. 

Boiled locusts make good food for cattle 
as well as for humankind; and when the 
green of the pasture has disappeared 
beneath the dark color of swarming 




millions, the locusts themselves are some- 
times substituted for the pasturage they 
destroy, being cooked and fed to the cattle, 
which willingly take their grass in this form. 
With locusts as with other foods, some 
brands are more highly esteemed than others, 



LOCUSTS AS FOOD 179 

and it is a great compensation that the dev- 
astating migratory locust is a prime favor- 
ite, being large, fat, well-flavored, — to the 
connoisseur, — and causing no ill effects. 

Some other species also are eaten, but 
there are some that must be avoided because 
of certain disorders which they induce. The 
female locust is the most highly esteemed, 
as it is considerably larger and plumper than 
the male; like the shad, it is best just before 
the egg-laying has begun. The moment to 
take it is immediately before the last moult, 
when it is at its best and most succulent 
stage, the wings being as yet undeveloped 
and useless for flying. This of course limits 
its use to that season, and where the people 
depend upon flights of locusts they gladly 
take what comes. Where the immature 
females can be obtained, the brown coffee- 
colored soup into which the Hottentots 
convert them is so rich in fat that it has 
a greasy appearance when cool and makes a 
rich feast for the fortunate possessors. 

In Arabia and Africa vast quantities of 
locusts are cooked and dried for transporta- 
tion, being spread on the roofs of the houses 
and wherever space is found, as macaroni is 
spread in Italy, and sliced apples used to be 
in our good old New England days. Mules 
heavily laden with bags of dried locusts have 
been seen making their way to the towns of 



i8o GRASSHOPPER LAND 

Tripoli. Ships, too, are loaded with dried or 
smoked locusts for transportation to less 
favored lands, and in the East one can order 
locusts for dessert in the cafe if he wishes to 
close his meal with a special delicacy. 

In Persia and Arabia roasted locusts are 
sold in the markets and eaten with rice and 
dates, being sometimes flavored with salt and 
spices. At the present time we can buy roast 
locusts in the streets of Bagdad, that most 
delectable town that to some of us seems to 
exist only in the Arabian Nights, and where, 
if anywhere, we could relish the thought of 
locusts and pomegranates for dinner. 

That locusts have been eaten in Arabia 
from the remotest antiquity is most delight- 
fully proved by the sculptured slabs found 
by Layard at Kouyunjic, where the prepara- 
tions for a gorgeous banquet are pictured. 
A procession of stately attendants preceded 
by mace-bearers marches along with clusters 
of ripe dates, baskets of pomegranates, apples, 
bunches of grapes, and vases of flowers, as 
well as cakes, hares, partridges, and all the 
other good things of the feast. Among them 
one attendant, and by no means the least 
stately, holds carefully before him long rods 
upon which are fastened rows of dried locusts, 
evidently regarded as a delicacy by even the 
proud Assyrian.^ 

^ See frontispiece of this volume. 



LOCUSTS AS FOOD i8i 

China, of course, has not overlooked so 
obvious a remedy for hunger in her immense 
population, — at least in Tientsin bushels of 
fried locusts are hawked about the streets 
in baskets borne by boys. In India, as one 
would expect, curried locusts are the thing. 
It is also reported from the Philippine Islands 
that locusts are eaten as a regular food, the 
people catching them in nets when they come 
to feast on their potato vines. They are 
parched over the fire in earthen pans, which 
causes the legs and w^ngs to fall off and 
turns the heads and backs red, like boiled 
shrimps. Indeed, cooking the locust seems 
to have this effect on its coloring, as it does 
on our own lobsters and crabs. 

Although locusts are so generally and gen- 
erously used as an article of food in some 
parts of the world, an exclusive diet of them 
is not wholesome, causing the consumers to 
become emaciated and melancholy. Diodorus 
Siculus, who lived about 60 b. c, gives us a 
detailed account of the locust-eaters of Ethi- 
opia. These acridophagi, he tells us, are 
small of stature, very lean and meagre, and 
exceedingly black. They harvest their year's 
supply of food in the Springtime, when the 
south winds rise and blow great swarms of 
locusts out of the desert, very big and with 
dirty-brown wings. These evidently are the 
common migratory locusts, and they are 



i82 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

gathered wholesale, as would be necessary 
for a year's supply of food. In this locust- 
eater's paradise nature has supplied a long 
and deep vale which it is only necessary to 
fill with wood and other combustibles — and 
wait for the quarry to appear. The friendly 
winds never fail to drive in immense swarms, 
and as they come the brave hunters light 
the piles of fuel, and the locusts, suffocated 
by the smoke, fall into the fire. Days of 
wholesale destruction continue, until the 
ground is covered with heaps of the slain, 
which are finally collected and '' salted 
down," the accommodating land abounding 
in salt, which we are gravely informed gives 
the locusts an excellent relish and preserves 
them a long time, so that the people have 
food of this nature all the year round. A 
most lazy life is this ; but it has its reverse 
side, for we are told that these inordinate 
locust-eaters die young, being carried off by 
a terrible disease. This disease is as fab- 
ulous as perhaps is the whole tale of the 
acridophagi, though no doubt locusts do fur- 
nish the staple of life to many poor tribes for 
at least a part of the year; and Pliny in- 
forms us that *' the people of the Eastern 
countries make their food of grasshoppers, 
even the very Parthians, who otherwise 
abound in wealth." 

That the habit of locust-eating has not 



LOCUSTS AS FOOD 183 

been confined to the far East the follow- 
ing translation specifying a poor Athenian 
family's provisions goes to show : 

'' For our best and daintiest cheer, 
Through the bright half of the year, 
Is but acorns, onions, peas, 
Okras, lupines, radishes, 
Vetches, wild pears nine or ten, 
With a locust now and then." 

The '' locust now and then " must have been 
the occasional delicacy, as it would scarcely 
be regarded as a hardship. The most pol- 
ished of the Greeks enjoyed them, the young 
unfledged insect being considered a dainty 
morsel 

When one becomes accustomed to the 
thought that vast multitudes of human beings 
eat locusts, even depending upon them for 
subsistence, it will not seem strange that these, 
with wild honey, were the food of John the 
Baptist in the wilderness ; for he was in a 
locust-eating country, where the insect was 
a common and easily transported food. The 
locust is among the creatures mentioned in 
the Bible as forming permissible food for 
the people: ''Even these of them ye may 
eat: the locust after his kind, and the bald 
locust after his kind, and the beetle after his 
kind, and the grasshopper after his kind." 

Some Occidental writers contend that the 
locusts eaten by John the Baptist were the 



1 84 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 



bean of the carob tree ; while Hasselquist 
tells us he was assured by a judicious Greek 
priest that their church had never taken the 
word in any other sense than as the insect ; 
he even laughed at the idea of its being a 
bird or a plant. 




Niebuhr also 
says that the 
Jews in Arabia 
are convinced 
that the fowls of 
which the Israel- 
ites ate in the 
wilderness w^ere 
only clouds of locusts, and they laugh at our 
translators, who supposed that they found 
quails where quails never w^ere. 

Nor has the New World neglected the 
toothsome insect, which sometimes appears 
in South America in swarms that would do 
credit to Africa itself. The Indians of Chile, 
where the locusts are obtainable in great 
abundance, make them into a sort of bread, 



LOCUSTS AS FOOD 185 

we are told. The people — so the chronicle 
runs — watch for the coming of the locust, 
and when, as is the habit of the insect, it 
goes to rest in thickets that are scattered 
over the plains, the wily Indian steals up 
and fires the bushes, which the high winds 
speedily reduce to ashes. Then he gathers 
up his locusts already roasted, and has only 
to grind them into flour from which to bake 
his locust bread. 

Coming closer home, we find that our 
own West Indies did not fail to discover the 
virtue of locusts as food, as we are faithfully 
informed by Peter Martyr in his '' History 
of the West Indies." He says: 

" Fernandus Oniedus declareth furthermore that 
in a certain region called Zenu, lying four score and 
tenne miles from Darrina Eastwarde, they exercise 
a strange kinde of marchaundize: For in the houses 
of the inhabitantes they found great chests and bas- 
kets, made of twigges and leaves of certaine trees 
apt for that purpose, being al ful of Grasshoppers, 
Grilles, Crabbes, Crefishes, Snails also, and Locustes, 
which destroie the fields of corne, all well dried and 
salted. Being demanded why they reserved such a 
multitude of these beastes : they answered that they 
kept them to be sowled to the borderors, which 
dwell further within the lande, and that for the ex- 
change of these pretious birdes, and salted fishes, 
they received of them certayne straunge thinges, 
wherein partly they take pleasure, and partly use 
them for the necessarie affaires." 



i86 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

Locusts served up in such quaint lan- 
guage acquire a romantic flavor that makes 
one quite long to sample these '* pretious 
birdes." 

Coming yet closer home, we find in our 
own country customs which go to prove 
how universally known and used is anything 
good the world over and in all time. Just 
listen to what the '' Empire County Argus" 
has to say about the locust-eaters of the 
United States: 

" Among the choice delicacies with which the 
California Digger Indians regale themselves during 
the summer season is the Grasshopper roast. Hav- 
ing been an eye-witness to the preparation and dis- 
cussion of one of their feasts of Grasshoppers, we 
can describe it truthfully. There are districts of 
California, as well as portions of the plains between 
Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains, that lit- 
erally swarm with Grasshoppers, and in such aston- 
ishing numbers that a man cannot put his foot to 
the ground, while walking there, without crushing 
great numbers. To the Indian they are a great 
delicacy, and are caught and cooked in the follow- 
ing manner: A piece of ground is sought where 
they most abound, in the centre of which an exca- 
vation is made, large and deep enough to prevent 
the insect from hopping out when once in. The 
entire party of Diggers, old and young, male and 
female, then surround as much of the adjoining 
grounds as they can, and each with a green bough 
in hand, whipping and thrashing on every side, 
gradually approach the centre, driving the insects 



LOCUSTS AS FOOD 187 

before them in countless multitudes, till at last all, 
or nearly all, are secured in the pit. In the mean- 
time smaller excavations are made, answering the 
purpose of ovens, in which fires are kindled and 
kept up till the surrounding earth, for a short dis- 
tance, becomes sufficiently heated, together with a 
flat stone, large enough to cover the oven. The 
Grasshoppers are now taken in coarse bags, and, 
after being thoroughly soaked in salt water for a 
few moments, are emptied into the oven and closed 
in. Ten or fifteen minutes suffice to roast them, 
when they are taken out and eaten without further 
preparation, and with much apparent relish, or, as is 
sometimes the case, reduced to powder and made 
into soup. And having from curiosity tasted, not 
of the soup, but of the roast, really, if one could 
divest himself of the idea of eating an insect as we 
do an oyster or shrimp, without other preparation 
than simple roasting, they would not be considered 
very bad eating, even by more refined epicures than 
the Digger Indians." 

Surely there must be something inherently 
delectable in the locust that is thus relished 
in all parts of the world. May it not be 
that our strained sensibilities, enabling us as 
they do to swallow an oyster but causing us 
to shudder at the thought of a grasshopper, 
are depriving us of a great epicurean pleas- 
ure? Who knows but that some ''health 
food" expert has already discovered in the 
toothsome locust the greatest aid to longevity 
yet exploited, and that we are about to read 
painted in large and convincing letters over 



i88 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

all New England's choicest landscape the 
thrilling legend '' U-nee-da-grasshopper "? 

A step in this direction was taken some 
years ago by the State entomologist of 
Missouri, who, being in a position to acquire 
abundance of fresh material, invited his 
brother entomologists to a feast of locusts. 
The insects were prepared in many ways, 
and, if report be true, were greatly relished 
by the fortunate banqueters. This good 
example does not seem to have been followed ; 
at least, locust dishes do not occur with 
any frequency in our many new cook-books. 
Perhaps there is a good time coming. 

Naturally the locust has been from all 
time an object of superstition, yielding will- 
ing obedience to the angry gods, who, to 
punish erring m-an, sent clouds of these in- 
sects to destroy his sustenance. Over and 
over again has ancient Rome, fearing a 
great famine because of sw^arms of locusts 
appearing from the coasts of Africa, been 
forced to consult the Sibyl's books to dis- 
cover by what means the anger of the gods 
could be averted. 

Pausanias tells us of a bronze statue of 
Apollo in the Parthenon which was called 
Pamopius, and made by Phidias out of 
gratitude to Apollo for having once ban- 
ished the locusts from Greece, where they 
were greatly injuring the land. Pausanias 



LOCUSTS AS FOOD 



189 



himself knew of three instances in which 
the god of the sun destroyed the locusts in 
Mount Lipylus, using quite natural instru- 
ments, though in rather an un- 
natural manner: we are told that 
they were once attacked by 
wind, which is comprehensible 
enough; at another by vehement 
heat — it must have been vehe- 
ment indeed to distress 
a locust; and a third 
time by unexpected cold. 




Every one will recall the punishment ac- 
corded to Pharaoh by divine wrath, as related 
in the Bible: 



" If thou refuse to let my people go, behold, to- 
morrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast: and 
they shall cover the face of the earth, that one can- 
not be able to see the earth : and they shall eat the 
residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth 
unto you from the hail, and shall eat every tree 
which groweth for you out of the field. And they 



T90 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

shall fill thy houses, and the houses of all thy ser- 
vants, and the houses of all the Egyptians." 

The threat was presently executed, natural 
means being used to call forth and finally 
to banish the plague : 

" And the Lord brought an east wind upon the 
land all that day, and all that night; and when it 
was morning the east wind brought the locusts. 
And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, 
and rested in all the coasts of Egypt: very grievous 
were they; . . . for they covered the face of the 
whole earth, so that the land was darkened ; and 
they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit 
of the trees which the hail had left: and there re- 
mained not any green thing in the trees, or in the 
herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt. 
. . . And the Lord turned a mighty strong west 
wdnd, which took away the locusts, and cast them 
into the Red Sea ; there remained not one locust in 
all the coasts of Egypt." 

In our own time it is the baneful influ- 
ence of a comet that precipitates hordes of 
locusts upon long-suffering Egypt, as was 
the popular idea in 1843, when the land was 
ravaged; and the evil comet that sent the 
plague was seen for twelve days in the 
southwest. It is a popular superstition in 
Eastern countries that to dream of the com- 
ing of locusts is a sign of an approaching 
army, and tnat so far as the dream-locusts 
harm the land so will the army of men lay 



LOCUSTS AS FOOD 191 

it waste. The diviners foretold from watch- 
ing the direction taken by a flight of locusts 
what kingdom was doomed to bow under 
divine wrath ; they also decided, from the 
color of the insects, the national uniform of 
such armies as were to go forth to conquer. 

Most of the efforts of superstition, how- 
ever, were very naturally directed toward a 
remedy, or means of diverting the threatened 
visitation ; and, as one would expect, the 
advice given on the subject is as wise as it 
is effective, Democritus advising that when 
a cloud of locusts is seen passing over a 
place all persons should remain very quietly 
indoors. If the visitors arrive suddenly, how- 
ever, they will do no harm if you boil bitter 
lupines and wild cucumber in brine and 
sprinkle it about, — a practice which causes 
them to die. 

Again, you need only tie some bats to the 
tops of high trees to prevent the locusts 
from troubling you. One should think it 
might be a little wearing to keep bats in 
stock for the purpose, as well as to attach 
them at the right moment to the tops of 
high trees ; but of course plebeian, practical 
considerations never troubled theorists in 
any age. More easily, and doubtless just as 
effectively, you can catch some locusts and 
burn them, thus rendering the others torpid. 
Otherwise, you may pound some absinthe, or 



192 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

a leek, or centaury, with water and sprinkle 
it over the garden, when the fastidious 
locusts will satisfy the cravings of hunger 
elsewhere. Having grapevines in danger, 
it is only necessary to set three grains of 
mustard around the vine close to the root. 

In China the people drive them into the 
sea or cause them to fall into some river, by 
marching out with colors flying and shout- 
ing and hallooing until the sensitive locusts, 
doubtless preferring death to any further 
Chinese demonstrations, throw themselves 
into the water. And in that mysterious land 
the power of reason has been successfully 
employed : we are told that at a time of 
great stress the Emperor went out into his 
gardens and, taking up some of the destroy- 
ing insects, solemnly harangued them, in- 
forming them finally that they had better 
devour his bowels than the food of his sub- 
jects; and he emphasized his remarks by 
politely swallowing them. Whether they ac- 
cepted the sacrificial challenge is not stated ; 
probably not, since the Emperor's magnan- 
imity appealed so powerfully to their feelings 
that the rest of the noble insects, at once 
and every one, took flight. It might not be 
gracious to wonder if fear of a like fate may 
have had anything to do with their hasty 
departure. 

The superstitious Tartars of Crimea, finding 



LOCUSTS AS FOOD 193 

the locusts unmanageable, sent over to Asia 
Minor, from which country the insects had 
migrated, for dervishes to come and drive 
them away by incantations. These potent 
magicians prayed around the mosques and 
commanded water to be hung out on the min- 
arets as a charm to entice a certain species 
of blackbird to come in myriads and de- 
stroy the destroyer. As to 
whether the birds came his- 
tory is silent, but the 
precious water is still 
said to be preserved 
in the mosques; and 
the precious der- 
vishes were perfectly 
successful in collect- 
ing much money for 
their valuable aid, eighty thousand rubles 
having been gladly given by the terror- 
stricken people whose all was in danger, 
even the poorest shepherd contributing a 
half-ruble. 

The anathemas of the church have been 
frequently and successfully, if we can believe 
the chroniclers, hurled against the puny foe, 
who upon being exorcised fled in terror. 
Thus : 

" In the yeere 1603, at Fremona, great misery 
happened by grassehoppers, from which Paez freed 
the Catholikes, by Letanies and sprinkling the fields 

13 




194 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

with Holy-water; whenas the fields of Heretikes, 
seuered only by a ditch, were spoyled by them. 
Yea, a Heretike using this sacred sprinkling, pre- 
served his Come which to a Catholike nes^lectinor 
in one Field, was lost, and preserved in another by 
that coniured aspersion — so neere of kinne are 
these Locusts to the Deuill, who is said to hate 
Holy- water." 

At least once the locusts operated in the 
cause of peace, for we are told that Tamer- 
lane's army being infested by them, he read 
in it a warning from above to abandon his 
designs against Jerusalem. 

The Mohammedans have a consoling tra- 
dition that lifts the responsibility of fighting 
the locusts from their shoulders. They say 
that after God had created man he made 
locusts from the clay that was left, the 
scourge being a just chastisement from 
heaven for the sins of the people, — a belief 
that renders the ofttime execrated Darwinian 
theory not only superfluous, but soothing to 
man's pride, in comparison. 

The spotted wings of the locusts have 
given rise to many imaginings, for can one 
not descry upon the fateful insect signs of its 
supernatural power? Look steadily enough 
at the markings on the wings, with the 
understanding that they are leaves out of 
the book of fate on which are inscribed the 
destinies of nations, and from the general 



LOCUSTS AS FOOD 195 

obscurity there will presently shine forth cer- 
tain symbolic signs, the letter //^ portending 
war, or P portending peace. 

In 1 712 a swarm visited Silesia, on whose 
wings were the letters B. E. S., which were 
variously interpreted by a distinguished pro- 
fessor of Greek literature at the gymnasium 
of Stettin. He wrote a learned work upon 
the subject, the German significance of the 
signs being, according to him, " Bedeutet Er- 
schreckliche Schlachten" (''presaging fright- 
ful battle "), and '' Bedeutet Erfreuliche 
Siege" (''predicting happy victory"). 

The little fingers about the locust's mouth 
have not escaped comment, being supposed to 
represent Greek characters signifying "I nour- 
ish." One should think this an unnecessary 
announcement on the part of this obviously 
well-nourished and much-nourishing insect. 

The Hottentots have a curious supersti- 
tion concerning the origin of the locust. 
They believe the creatures come from a 
great master-conjurer far to the north, who 
removes a stone from a deep pit and lets 
them loose, when they fly to load the table 
of the grateful Hottentot. 

The symbolical locusts of the Apocalypse 
have a similar origin, for it is written of the 
angel : 

"And he opened the bottomless pit; and there 
arose asmoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great 



196 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

furnace ; and the sun and the air were darkened, 
by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came 
out of the smoke locusts upon the earth." 

The Arabs, we are told, bestow upon the 
locust a remarkable pedigree, and describe 
him as having the head of the horse, the 
horns of the stag, the eye of the elephant, 
the neck of the ox, the breast of the lion, the 
body of the scorpion, the hip of the camel, 
the legs of the stork, the wings of the eagle, 
and the tail of the draQfon. 

It seems to have been a general belief in 
ancient times that the immense swarms of 
locusts had an organized society like the 
bees and ants, although in the Bible, in 
the Book of Proverbs, we are assured that 
*' The locusts have no king, yet go they forth 
all of them by bands." In Arabia the king 
of the locusts, or Sultan Jeraad, leads the 
host, and when he rises the whole swarm at 
once follows. An Arab, claiming to have 
seen the great Sultan Jeraad, described his 
lordship as being larger and more beautifully 
colored than the ordinary locust. 

The Chinese, too, believe that the locusts 
are marshalled by a large and gorgeous 
leader; and it is not so long ago, if indeed 
the tale does not belong in the present tense, 
that our New England locusts were cred- 
ited with having regimental discipline, and 
conimanders with more splendid uniforrns. 



LOCUSTS AS FOOD 197 

The truth is less romantic, however, though 
not less wonderful. The locusts have no 
leaders, yet notwithstanding this they rise 
in a body, all headed the same way, and all 
take flight in a given direction as though by 
some preconcerted understanding. 

Of course locusts have been used as med- 
icine, as what has not ? and we are told that 
the eggs of some species are put by Jewish 
women in their ears to preserve them from 
earache. In Sweden the boys get the locusts 
to drive away their warts, the 'Mnolasses " 
having this highly beneficial virtue. The 
dried and burned bodies and excretions of 
the creatures have been put to more or less 
unpleasant curative uses. 

The largest locusts on record are certain 
giants of India, which Pliny describes as 
being three feet long, and with legs so strong 
that the women used them for saws ! One 
cannot help hoping, for the sake of the 
women, that these saws were better arranged 
for the purpose than are the spines on the 
legs of the humble locusts of to-day. 



XV 

THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN LOCUST 

THE Eastern hemisphere has un- 
doubtedly the greatest reputation 
for the production and consump- 
tion of locusts. Yet it cannot lay 
claim to exclusiveness on this account, for 
the other side of the globe has raised locusts 
enough and ravenous enough to give it a 
brilliant page in the annals of the insect. 

Asia and Africa have the advantage of 
possessing many hot and arid regions of 
vast extent to serve as breeding-places, also 
the hot winds blowing from these regions 
that facilitate the hatching of the eggs; for 
the migratory locust is a true child of the 
desert, rejoicing in the fiercest rays of the 
hottest season. 

Yet- youthful America, with her habit of 
headlong success, has quickly made a few 
pages of history that are worthy a place 
alongside the thrilling chronicles of the 
East. South America is the possessor of a 
large locust almost identical with the migra- 
tory locust of the East. Perhaps it is a 
lineal descendant of that famous tribe — 



THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN LOCUST 199 

who knows? With the true migratory in- 
stinct it sallies forth at intervals, laying 
waste vast tracts of cultivated land. Though 
it cannot repair to an Afri- 
can desert, it has an enor- 
mous breeding-area on the 
extensive plateau that lies 
along the eastern slope 
of the Chilian Andes, 
whence it swoops down 
upon the convenient grain- 
fields that are the wealth 
of Argentina. These great 
wheat-fields are visited al- 
most every year, often 
with the most wide- 
spread and disastrous 
results, and one of the 
chief problems of the 
South America plan- 
ter is, what to do with 
the locusts. 

But it is from the ^ 




United States, agriculturally so fortunate in 
many respects, that we get the most vivid re- 
ports of the doings of the locusts ; for though 



200 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

it is slightly different from the others, we 
have a true migratory vandal within our 
borders. It is only about half as large as 
the famous destroyer of the East, greenish 
in color, with brown-spotted wings which, as 
is true of all the migratory locusts, are much 
longer than the abdomen. 

But though smaller and probably some- 
what less prolific than its renowed Eastern 
cousin, it is fully endowed with that enter- 
prise said to be characteristic of all things 
American, and with true national pluck '' gets 
there " in the most unequivocal and success- 
ful manner. It thinks no more of a little 
flight of a thousand miles in search of break- 
fast than a Chicago business man thinks of 
going around the world to get a change of 
air. It is very alert, and for a long time 
outwitted the shrewdest Yankee farmers in 
its tactics, bringing starvation upon the luck- 
less settlers, who ofttimes planted miles of 
succulent crops apparently for its sole benefit. 
Outsiders respectfully call it the Rocky 
Mountain locust, though at home it is famil- 
iarly known as the Hateful Grasshopper, a 
name that carries its own confession. 

Like all the migratory locusts it breeds in 
semi-desert places, which it finds in abun- 
dance in the high valleys and dry plains and 
plateaus of Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, 
Montana, and British Columbia, sometimes 



THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN LOCUST 201 

going as high as ten thousand feet for the 
purpose, and having at one time had posses- 
sion of as much as four hundred thousand 
square miles of territory over which it ranged 
at will, using now one part, now another, as 
circumstances decided. 

In early times the personal history of 
the locusts must have been tragic. When 
pressed by hunger to leave their own domains, 
what became of the immense swarms ? Did 
they take their long southward journey only 
to fall at last victims to their own immense 
fecundity? The prairie grasses and unirri- 
gated lands surely could not have supported 
their numbers ; and thus no doubt their 
breeding was also lessened, many a monster 
swarm going out into space to be heard of 
no more. 

When the kindly farmer came, however, 
the face of nature changed beneath his magic 
touch ; grain-fields spread over the smiling 
land, and miles upon miles of grasshopper 
food of the finest quality suddenly adorned 
the earth. Then did the grasshopper arise 
and laugh ; then did he clap his hands and 
rejoice with exceeding great joy and bless 
the farmer, — who, however, did not return 
the benediction. 

One can imagine the feelings of the men 
who, just come to a new and promising land, 
fields lying full of hope on all sides, hard 



202 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

work about to be crowned with plenty, saw up 
in the sky a far gray cloud, the most ominous 
sight for many years that a Kansas farmer 
could see. On it came, drifting on the terrible 
northwest wind, filling finally the whole sky, 
the sun glancing on millions of fluttering, 
gauzy wings so numerous as to dim its very 
light. A beautiful sight, if the people had 
not been too alarmed to discover beauty in 
such a vision. The terrible moment arrived 
when this cloud fell like a heavy snow upon 
the roofs of the houses, upon the sheds and 
barns, over the flocks and herds, covering 
every foot of grain-field and garden, and then 
arose the ominous sound of feasting. For 
the uninvited guests were very hungry after 
their long journey, and fell with a will upon 
the delicious grain, munching away with a 
distinctly audible gusto. Before their raven- 
ous appetites the green herbs disappeared as 
though a fire had swept the land. Every 
leaf was then stripped from the trees, the 
fruit hanging on the branches was eaten, and 
in desperation the insatiable hordes consumed 
as well the green bark on the tender twigs. 

The noise of their flight was as the rush- 
ing of a mighty wind, and it was not uncom- 
mon for them to come with an unbroken 
front of fifty miles, and a length of one hun- 
dred miles. We are told that such a com- 
pany made a noise sufficient to stampede 



THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN LOCUST 203 

tame cows ! One would think the cow quite 
excusable under the circumstances, though, 
poor creature, where could 
she flee to escape ? 

The loss of hay, grain, 
and other crops was only 
a small part of 
thedamage done, 
as the suffering 
of the herbivorous 
animals was beyond 
telling. Indeed in all 
essentials the Rocky 
Mountain locust re- 
peats the history of 
its relative of the 
East. A favorable 
season would bring 
the insects forth in 
immense 
and as the season 




favorable to them is not so to vegetation, 
being too hot and dry, the hungry hordes are 



204 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

soon driven forth to find sustenance in their 
neighbors' borders. 

When they rise in a body, what is it that 
prompts them? Did they in those years 
gone by smell the fresh pastures a thousand 
miles away ? Or, driven by starvation, did 
they chance the future, trusting themselves 
to the force that bore them on, blind as to 
consequences but hoping for a happy ter- 
mination to the venture? If the prevailing 
winds had set the other way, over the barren 
mountain peaks and the deserts, would they 
still have risen mill-ions strong to be borne 
away to sure death in the wilderness ? Who 
can say ? All we know is that they do rise, 
in former years ascending until they en- 
countered the great northeast air current 
that bore them airily balanced on distended 
wings sometimes for a thousand miles or 
more, to the fertile fields of the Mississippi 
Valley ; for the so-called " Kansas grass- 
hopper " is no native of Kansas, but came 
from far-away Idaho or some other more or 
less distant breeding-place. 

Being so far from home, it probably was 
never able to return for the purpose of plac- 
ing its eggs in the home hatching-grounds, 
but oviposited in the land of its visitation, 
sowing the soil with seeds of future woe. 
Though, like the other migratory locusts, it 
cannot thrive indefinitely in the more fertile. 



THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN LOCUST 205 

which are also the damper lands, it can do 
enough active work in the two or three 
seasons at its disposal to ruin the popula- 
tion. The eggs are laid in the most favor- 
able localities the insect can find, and the 
following season out come the unfledged 
young ; tiny, relentless, pert-looking infants, 
that, as soon as they are sure of their legs, 
begin their course of depredation. On they 
march in the same irresistible fashion, de- 
vouring all before them, refusing to stay or 
turn excepting as their own will prompts, 
piling up knee-high in places, covering the 
railroad tracks sufficiently to stop trains, and 
proceeding hundreds of miles, until they ac- 
quire wings and take to flight. 

This is quite the old story which has been 
enacted since long before the time of the 
Pharaohs in Egypt, and no doubt equally 
long in this New World — which so far as 
its surface is concerned is not new, but very, 
very old. 

The Rocky Mountain locust never has 
caused, and never can cause, the misery that 
its fearful prototype in the East has caused, 
for the United States would not see her 
children die like flies, for lack of bread ; she 
has plenty, and her children do not swarm to 
the extent of those dark-skinned natives of 
tropic countries. Yet the power of the crea- 
ture is the same here as in the East, and the 



2o6 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

early history of a large part of the fertile 
Mississippi Valley is one long fight with 
the locusts, a more difficult native to cope 
with than the quickly banished Indian. Min- 
nesota, Montana, Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, 
Missouri, Iowa, and even as far south as 
Texas, the plague has raged from season to 
season, sometimes threatening the total de- 
struction of a large area of the country for 
agricultural purposes. In British Columbia 
and Manitoba the new colonies w^ere sore 
pressed, and in the far West every State, even 
to the Pacific Ocean, has been devastated. 

As soon as the fertile West began to be 
extensively planted there arose the cry of 
despair. In 1818 and 18 19 such vast hordes 
appeared in Minnesota that in some places 
the ground was covered to a depth of three 
or four inches, and every green thing dis- 
appeared before them. The next tw^o years 
they appeared farther north, laying waste 
Manitoba, and from that time on the records 
bear almost yearly reports of devastations in 
some parts of the locust-infested territory. 

In 1855 there was a terrible invasion west 
of the Rocky Mountains, when the locusts 
spread over the Pacific slope and along the 
western regions of the Rockies, covering an 
area of country two thousand five hundred 
miles long and in some places tw^elve hun- 
dred miles wide. One could quite imagine 



THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN LOCUST 207 

himself transported to the historic African 
lands at a time of great invasion. The 
locusts that infest the regions west of the 
Rocky Mountains have their own breeding- 
places, and are, in some cases at least, a 
different species from those ravaging the 
land east of the great range, though very 
similar to them. 

Following upon the heels of the great 
Western invasion of 1855, we find the two 
succeeding seasons '' locust years " in Minne- 
sota, the marauders being 
so numerous that they 
even invaded the people's V\| 
houses and did great dam- ^""^^ 
age indoors as well as out, 
eating cushions, window curtains, shoes, and 
even revelling in heavy cowhide boots ! The 
people had not yet learned how to fight the 
foe. The only record of any attempt to 
lessen their numbers seems to be of one 
canny farmer who gathered them by bagfuls, 
dipped them in scalding water, and fed them 
to his hogs. 

The climax of the locust story east of the 
Rocky Mountains was reached in 1874 and 
1876, when vast areas were overrun, and 
fifty million dollars' worth of grain eaten, by 
the insatiable visitors — a state of affairs 
that, occurring in Africa, would undoubtedly 
have caused one of those awful famines; and 




2oS GRASSHOPPER LAND 

the famine would have been followed by the 
equally awful plague in which the history of 
that country so abounds. 

Texas in the memorable locust year, 1876, 
was so well supplied that her trains were 
delayed for ten days by the locusts piled on 
the tracks. The outlook was desperate. It 
seemed as though several of the most fertile 
of the Western States would have to be 
abandoned to the locusts, when merciful 
Nature came to the rescue, and in the Spring 
of 1877 a cold, damp season destroyed as by 
magic the plague that a few months before 
had seemed indestructible. 

A vivid idea of the hopelessness engendered 
by these invasions is presented in the follow- 
ing extract from Packard's '' Entomology " : 

" Last Spring the young were hatched from the 
egg in the early days of March ; by the middle of 
the month they had destroyed half the vegetation, 
although the insects were wingless and not larger 
than a housefly. The first winged specimens were 
seen high in the air at about three in the afternoon ; 
as a light northerly breeze sprang up, millions 
dropped to the earth, covering the ground in an 
hour, and destroying every green thing with avidity. 
During the night they were quiet, but at daybreak 
commenced to eat, and continued until ten in the 
morning, when they all flew southward. At about 
three o'clock in the afternoon of the same day an- 
other swarm arrived, ten times as numerous as the 
first; these again took flight the following day; 



THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN LOCUST 209 

and thus they continued coming and going, day 
after day, devouring the foliage and depositing their 
eggs. At first they selected bare spots for this pur- 
pose, but finally the whole surface of the earth was 
so broken up by their borings that every inch of 
ground contained several patches of eggs. This 
visitation was spread over many hundreds of miles." 

What wonder the people became discour- 
aged ? What wonder that many abandoned 
in despair the Eldorado to which they had 
gone with their all to start a new life in the 
rosy West ? 

Fortunately for man, the migratory locust 
cannot thrive in damp localities. Dampness 
seems peculiarly fatal to it, so that it can 
breed for only one or two seasons in the 
more fertile portions of the country. This 
alone has made North America — yea, the 
world — habitable. For not only do the in- 
fested districts have an occasional respite 
between the visits of the migratory swarms, 
but the whole eastern part of our country is 
safe from these destroyers, who are never 
seen beyond certain well-defined boundaries. 

Since they are dependent upon the wind 
to help them in making long journeys, it 
follows that they are able to pursue only 
certain routes — borne on the prevailing air 
current ; and when this has happened to blow 
at the right season from the high breeding- 
grounds at the foot of the mountains, it has 

14 



2IO GRASSHOPPER LAND 

carried them to the sections where their 
name will abide forever in the history of 
the early settlers and their struggles. 

As time went on the harried farmers 
learned to help themselves, ploughing up the 
eggs and destroying the marching armies 
by every conceivable device. But when the 
winged hosts came, there was no help ; noth- 
ing could stay their furious onslaught. 

Whether the immense swarms ever rode 
the wind the whole way to their distant 
feeding-grounds without stopping, or whether 
they were obliged occasionally to alight for 
refreshments, is a point not thoroughly estab- 
lished. Oftentimes they did alight on the 
way, though sometimes they appeared not 
to. The distances they can go are almost un- 
believable : certain swarms have been traced 
from their breeding-grounds on the Saskat- 
chewan, in Canada, to the Gulf of Mexico, a 
little excursion of almost two thousand miles. 

How a locust can maintain itself on the 
wing long enough to cover a space of a thou- 
sand miles or more is one of the marvels of 
this strange insect. What vitality! What 
patient endurance, to hang suspended, drift- 
ing on the wind for days — weeks maybe! 
That it can cover vast spaces without alight- 
ing is shown by its having been seen at sea 
in large numbers twelve hundred miles from 
the nearest land. 



THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN LOCUST 211 

It is believed by some that the large air 
tubes are widely distended during flight, in- 
creasing the buoyancy of the insect. Thus 
it floats, a winged bubble, rising only when 
the friendly wind is blowing, taking its place 
on the aerial highway and going wherever 
fate guides, arriving — too often for man's 
good — at a glorious goal, a veritable locust's 
Eldorado, far from its unfruitful home. 

Desperate as was the outlook in the lower 
Mississippi Valley, there has been no 
serious incursion since 
the dreadful year 1876. 
The war has been car- 
ried into the enemy's 
own country, and in -^^ A|, 
1885 we hear of the\;,i^v 
permanent breeding- 
place of the locust having been reduced 
from its original extent of four hundred 
thousand square miles to thirty-five or forty 
thousand. This came about through the 
cultivation of vast stretches of country in 
and near the breeding-grounds. The settlers 
who went in there fought the locusts with 
grim and unremitting determination, inci- 
dentally destroying many breeding-places by 
bringing them under cultivation ; for noth- 
ing is so upsetting to a nestful of eggs as to 
be ploughed out where air, rain, and sun can 
get to it. 




212 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

Cultivating the breeding-places of the 
locusts has saved the lower States in a more 
effective way, even, than by lessening the 
number of marauders, for the farmers have 
not yet succeeded in exterminating the hardy 
adversary that continues to issue forth in 
immense numbers every Spring. But now, 
finding ample pasturage near home, they 
save themselves the thousand-mile journey 
to distant lands, falling upon and devouring 
the substance of the newer and more northern 
settlers. Long-suffering Kansas must there- 
fore in the future depend upon such trifles 
as drought, caterpillars, and cyclones for the 
discipline needed to save her from too great 
prosperity — as well as upon such locusts as 
she can manage to raise at home, — an art 
in which she is not without some little skill. 
Her neighbor Colorado had a first-class in- 
vasion in 1 89 1 from home-bred raiders that 
proved only too conclusively that the Rocky 
Mountain locust is not the only strong van- 
dal of the dreadful tribe. This new visitor, 
of a species hitherto considered rare, sud- 
denly appeared in such abundance in the 
early part of July that the trains on the 
Santa Fe Railroad some hundred miles east 
of Denver were stopped on the track, and 
great damage was sustained in the infested 
district, though nothing in comparison to 
the ravages of the earlier migratory swarms. 



THE ROCKY MOUNTALN LOCUST 213 

The Colorado invaders had such long wings, 
and flew so easily, that they are said to have 
resembled birds when speeding through the 
air. 

The truth is, there are many locusts be- 
sides the migratory ones capable of doing 
vast damage, for all the tribe are good 
feeders, and nearly all are prolific. Each 
district has its own species, though none 
appear in such overwhelming numbers as 
that most successful of all propagators, the 
hateful grasshopper. Perhaps, also, none are 
so omnivorous, nothing being refused by a 
hungry swarm of these ; yet even they have 
their preferences, devouring first the grains 
and grasses, then certain vegetables and tree 
leaves ; finally, if the supply of favorite prov- 
ender runs short, eating anything and every- 
thing they can lay hold of. Some species of 
locusts touch nothing but grasses ; others 
have favorite garden vegetables ; while 
Texas has a tough nibbler that regales itself 
upon oak leaves, to the destruction of valued 
timber trees. 

Even the hard-pressed sections where the 
Rocky Mountain locust prevails are not so 
poor as to raise only the one grasshopper. 
On the contrary, there are a number of 
species that on the off years, or in company 
with the chief offender, assist in prematurely 
harvesting the farmer's crops. Indeed the 



214 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

agriculturist could truthfully say, ''The locust 
we have always with us " ; and he must ex- 
pect to share with it the produce of the earth, 
being ev^er on his guard against a sudden 
and overwhelming outbreak of these vigilant 
robbers of his hard-won crops. 

As to those newer settlers of the North- 
west who have invaded the very heart of the 
enemy's country and precipitated the 
hostile armies upon their own crops 
to the lasting benefit of the 




earlier, far-away sufferers, they yet have their 
problem to solve every year anew — how to 
get rid of the locust. But the land is good, 
and well pays for vigilant action. Con- 
stantly, therefore, the war of annihilation 
goes on ; constantly the breeding-area be- 
comes more limited, eternal vigilance being 
the price of liberty, here as elsewhere. 

Not only during the so-called locust years 
is the war of extermination carried on, but 
every season it is waged unceasingly, for 



THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN LOCUST 215 

every year there are locusts in sufficient 
numbers to compel the farmers to fight them. 
The latter are not dependent upon vagrant 
swarms to eat them out of house and home, 
but, living as they do in the very nest of the 
nuisance, are always well supplied with the 
home-grown staple. 

It has been carefully estimated that North 
Dakota and Minnesota saved four hundred 
thousand dollars on wheat alone in 1891 
(which was not considered a locust year 
there), by carefully ploughing up the eggs 
the previous Fall, and later destroying in so 
far as possible such locusts as appeared. 

That the traffic in locusts and locusts' eggs 
should afford remunerative employment to 
many is what would be expected ; conse- 
quently, so well in hand is the plague in 
these later days that we have the humorous 
situation of locust-infested fields being pla- 
carded with signs warning off grasshopper- 
catchers ! It sounds like a joke, and is only 
a shade less funny when we know that the 
fields are rented out to professional catchers, 
who thus protect their rights, warding off 
unlicensed intruders, principally in the form 
of the ubiquitous boy, who is eager to fill 
his coffers by active service in the lively 
campaign. Africa, however, has outyankeed 
the Yankee for once, a certain tribe of no- 
madic Arabs having put a capsheaf on the 



2i6 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

wooden nutmeg story by making and selling 
artificial nests, when, in 1884, a good price 
was being paid for eggs after a severe in- 
vasion of the migratory locust ! 

In the United States the work of exter- 
mination goes on with unparalleled success 
in these days, for of late years there has been 
let loose upon the doomed locust a force of 
which he could not have dreamed when in 
his heyday of power he sailed his thousand 
miles joyfully to outwit and undo the Kansas 
farmer. The United States Government it- 
self has honored him with its distinguished 
notice ; it has rolled its awful eye on him, 
has seen, made long entries of his pranks in 
convincing ink, pronounced him guilty, sen- 
tenced him to extermination, and to that end 
has sent a handful of picked men to execute 
the sentence. The locust might well have 
laughed in full-hearted security at the advent 
of these absurd executioners. But when this 
new and apparently insignificant adversary 
proceeded against him with no locust-catching 
machine, kindled no fire, dug- no ditch, 
merely took a few eggs and watched them 
and made notes of all that happened in the 
time and manner of their hatching and the 
growth of the young, then the discerning foe 
might well have stopped untimely laughter, 
being pervaded with an uneasy sense of com- 
ing misfortune. Although the captured eggs 



THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN LOCUST 217 

were allowed to hatch and the young were well 
cared for, such a course was surely not in the 
final interests of the captives. It was mys- 
terious, to say the least, and the mysterious in 
the tactics of an enemy is always alarming. 

And then, could the long-victorious locust 
have known the meaning of those messages 
flashing over the telegraph wires from the 
Saskatchewan to Mexico ! Could he have real- 
ized that at last that most potent of all forces, 
modern science, had been arrayed against him ; 
that the despoiled farmers were banded to- 
gether as one man from Canada to the Gulf 
of Mexico; that every movement he made 
was telegraphed to every district he might try 
to invade ; that numberless devices were kept 
ready at a moment's notice to destroy him in 
the Gggy in the wingless state, and in the full- 
fledged condition wherever and however he 
should appear, — he might well have lowered 
his crest and chewed his antennae or the soles 
of his feet in troubled meditation over the 
all too impending catastrophe. 

Never ceasing, the war of annihilation goes 
on ; constantly the breeding-area becomes 
more limited, until the incomparable Rocky 
Mountain locust, like the noble Red Man, 
may in time become practically exterminated, 
leaving little more than a name and a thrilling 
chapter in the early history of the country. 



XVI 

THE DIARY OF A LOCUST 

THIS morning I am here. I do not 
know where I was yesterday. They 
tell me I was born to-day, but I do 
not know what that means. I am 
here. The sun shines, and the ground feels 
warm and good. It is lovely to be here. 
And what a joy it is to eat ! I feel as though 
I could eat the world. Not because I am 
hungry, but because it is so beautiful to 
chew up the sweet grasses, which taste better 
and better. I am a little bunch of happiness, 
although I can hardly stand up, my legs 
are so wobbly. I wonder why they are so 
wobbly. But it does n't matter so long as I 
can eat. 

I am not alone. There are others like me 
all about. I climbed up a grass stalk this 
morning, and as far as I could see the earth 
was covered with happy mites like myself. 
It was a thrilling sight. I had no idea there 
could be so many of anything in the world, 
and they were all eating. 

Two days later. How can anything be 
so happy as I am ? My legs are no longer 




THE DIARY OF A LOCUST 219 

wobbly. I can hold up my head and march 
along with the best of them. We are on 
the march. Grass became scarce, there were 
so many of us. We ate every 
blade, and in a short time were 
as hungry as ever. It is a strange 
thing, this hunger. We no sooner feel satis- 
fied than it comes again as strong as ever 
— stronger, in fact. When the grass was 
all gone I tried to eat the ground, but it 
only made the hunger worse. Then I felt a 
sudden desire to go south. I do not know 
where the desire came from, but I yielded to 
it at once. The others all did the same, and 
that is why we are on the march. We soon 
came to fresh grass. We ate as we went. 
How delicious ! But it is even better to 
walk than to eat, so we foremost ones walked 
on, and those behind ate the grass, and when 
they walked on there were yet others to come 
and eat what was left. I can't imagine how 
many of us there are.. I climbed a weed 
this morning and looked about; it was like 
a sea of locusts as far as the eye could reach. 
And they were all happy and all eating. It 
was beautiful. 

Then something very sad happened. An 
enormous locust, as large as thousands of 
us, I should think, with great black wings 
like thunderclouds, flew down among us. It 
came near me, and I was afraid it was going 



220 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

to step on me, so I did something I had 
never done before, — I kicked myself along 
with my hind legs. All the others did the 
same. It was a wonderful sensation to 
throw yourself in the air, and I could not 
help noticing it, even though I was so scared 
by the big grasshopper. I kept on kicking 
myself along just for the fun of it. They 
call it hopping. Then I looked to see what 
the big grasshopper was doing. It is too 
terrible to think about. He was actually 
swallowing us ! I got under a half-eaten 
grass blade and lay very still, frightened 
almost to death. He picked us up like 
grains of wheat, hundreds of us ! — I don't 
know but thousands. It was the saddest 
sight any one could imagine. He went at 
last, and took all those grasshoppers with 
him. I hope in the midst of so much sorrow 
it is n't wrong to be glad he did n't catch me. 
They say he was a crow. I wish he would 
learn to eat grass. It is healthier and doesn't 
hurt anybody. Several other crows came 
among us, and no doubt did as the first one, 
though I was too far away to see. I was 
willing to be far away. Then some blue 
crows came, and some red and brown ones, 
and some with speckled breasts. They said 
these were birds. The crow looks like a 
bird, excepting that it is black and much 
larger. 



THE DIARY OF A LOCUST 221 

They must have swallowed pecks of us, 
but unless you knew you would n't know, 
for there seemed as many of us as ever. 
I do not know where we all came from, I 
am sure. When we went by the mouth of 
a mountain gorge there was a stream like a 
stream of water, only it was made of locusts 
like ourselves. When we got there they 
joined us, and we looked more like a sea 
than ever. It is beautiful to go along sur- 
rounded by your own, and all so happy. If 
only there wxre no birds and crows ! 

Ten days later. I have had a most strange 
and trying experience. Some two days ago 
I began to lose my appetite. As soon as 
your appetite goes you cease to take interest 
in anything. I felt heavy and forlorn, and as 
time went on decidedly queer. My eyesight 
failed ; everything looked dim and faded. 
My smell forsook me. I cared no longer for 
grass. It seemed to me I was suffocating. 
The sense of suffocation became so strong 
that I began to struggle for air, and then — I 
don't know how to tell it ! — I heard a crack- 
ing sound, and found that my skin had ripped 
open down the back! It frightened me, and 
I struggled all the more, and at last got my 
head out of the hole. I immediately felt 
better and began to pull the rest of my body 
out. It took a long time, but was not very 
painful, for my skin, all dry and hard, seemed 



222 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

to have quite separated from my body. It 
hung about me like a dry husk. At length I 
was all out but my hind legs, and I thought 
I should certainly pull them off, for my leg 
skin was bent at the knee joints at a sharp 
angle, and my poor legs had to be pulled 
around the corner. That did hurt, but I 
was crazy to get free, and so pulled away. 
The skin would not straighten, but my poor 
legs bent, if any one can believe it, — just 
bent over as though made of wax ; and so I 
pulled them loose. Then I clung to the old 
skin and looked at it. It w^as a complete 
model of me, only very much shrivelled and 
dried up, and it was hooked fast by the hind 
feet. I wonder how I ever thought to hook 
fast. I don't remember doing it at all. Then 
I looked at myself, — dreadfully soft but all 
there; so soft I was afraid to move, and 
my hind legs as crooked as a snake's tail. 
I should have been worried, only I felt so 
well and happy I could n't. The sun seemed 
to get in and warm my vitals. Then I 
looked around, and behold ! the whole army 
had come to a standstill. Some of them 
were very sick-looking, and some were wrig- 
gling out of their skins, and some were just 
out with their legs all crooked like mine; 
and I noticed how they had grown. I knew 
it was all right, since everybody was at it. 
It is a pity to be so soft, though. 



THE DIARY OF A LOCUST 223 

Next day. Well, the trouble is quite over 
and all is right again. Even the softness 
has disappeared. Before the day was over I 
was as hard as ever and twice as hungry, 
and gayly took up the march with a multi- 
tude who, like me, were ready. Others are 
still changing their skins. I am larger than 
I was, which is lovely, for now I can eat 
more than ever before. 

Three weeks later. We are still marching 
on, — and we have all changed our skins 




again. I did n't mind it so much this time, 
as I knew what was coming when I began 
to feel queer and blind and lose my appe- 
tite. This time I swelled out much larger 
than ever before. If I keep on I shall be 
able to eat a field of clover without any help. 
Was anything ever so hungry as I am all 
the time ? The more I eat the more I want 
to eat. I am glad grass and leaves grow 
everywhere. But when we have passed by 
there is n't much left ! We found a field of 
lovely grain this morning. They said the 
farmer sowed it for us. We all love the 
farmer. He t§ a good man, who remembers 
the little grasshopper and works hard to 






224 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

prepare the ground and plant fields for it. 
We ate every leaf. Grain is better than 
grass. Then we ate up a whole orchardful 
of half-grown fruit. The farmer prepared 
that for us too. We like the grain better, 
but he probably thought a change would be 
good for us. The truth is, we ate the orchard 
only because all the grain was gone, and all 
the grass, and all the tender things in the 
back garden. And we were so hungry! If 
we knew how, we should like to ask the good 
farmer to put it all into grain ; but that 
might hurt his feelings, and we would not 
hurt his feelings for anything, he is so good. 
A month later. We are getting to be so 
large! And now we do not mind changing 
our skins at all — it is so delightful to come 
out of them ever so much larger each time. 
Strong! How we can hop, and climb, and 
eat — best of all, eat! The only trouble is, 
we have to walk a long way, sometimes, to 
find enough ; and some days I feel half fam- 
ished, desperate enough to eat anything. I 
begin to wonder if there are not too many of 
us together, it makes such inroads on the 
food supply. I am sure I do not know what 
we can do about it, though ; we can't help 
being here, and there is nowhere to go, ex- 
cepting where we do go — to the nearest 
feeding-places. Terrible things have hap- 
pened to us lately. So many creatures have 



THE DIARY OF A LOCUST 225 

come along and swallowed us, one snake 
particularly. He looked like a sausage when 
he got through. He could hardly move, he 
was so full. It was a sad sight. Life is 
not all joy, as we used to think when we 
were young ; but we must keep up our 
spirits, for after all there are a good many 
of us left. Indeed it is impossible to see 
where any have disappeared, the crowd is so 
enormous — and so ravenous. Oh, well, one 
might as well be happy, so long as one is n't 
swallowed one's self. Then came several 
days of rain. It really looked as though we 
should be done for. Indeed a good many of 
the smaller ones died, but myriads survived ; 
and this morning in the sun we started on 
as brisk as you please, for we can smell 
grain-fields not so far away and the tooth of 
hunger gnaws. How disappointed the good 
farmer would have been if we had all been 
killed by the rain ! I am glad for his sake 
too that so many of us survived. There are 
quite enough to do justice to the good things 
he has provided. 

A month later. How to tell it — that last 
moult ! When the skin fell off, out dropped 
— wings ! Yes, wings ! And none too soon, 
for we were nearly starved. We had been 
finding only patches of grain here and there, 
for the farmer is scarce about here, and there 
were not weeds and grass enough to satisfy 

IS 




226 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

the cravings of hunger. That day of wings ! 
Who can ever forget it ? We rested until 
the following day, not fully understanding; 
then, just as the desire to march came, so 
came the desire to fly. All at once we 
vaulted into the air. Our new wings seemed 
to open of themselves. Without any prac- 
tice we began to fly. Up, up we went until 

we struck such a de- 
lightful breeze ! We 
went along with it 
for a time, and our 
new wings did not 
tire. Then the breeze freshened, and we 
turned around and just held open our wings 
and were carried like ships adown the stream. 
Such a sensation ! You feel like a bubble 
floating along, so light and full of air. At 
night we dropped down to rest, but in the 
morning were up and off again. We do not 
think of eating. Someway this wonderful 
flying satisfies even our hunger. 

Some time later, I do not know how long 
we have been floating down the air stream — ■ 
forever, I think. I am in a daze, and begin- 
ning to feel very faint ; a smell of growing 
grain this morning made me fairly ache with 
hunger. We shall get to it soon, judging 
from the odor, which now grows perceptibly 
stronger and stronger. I now know where we 
are bound for. We are heading straight for 



THE DIARY OF A LOCUST 227 

the glorious grain-fields of Kansas. There 
is no one like the Kansas farmer. He works 
early and late to get things in readiness for 
us locusts, knowing how nearly starved we 
shall be. 

Later, Down we dropped, too thick in 
places, for we piled up on each other; but 
I think everybody found a blade to nibble. 
Heavens, how frantic we were ! We mowed 
those fields down as by magic. You would 
never know there had been a spear of grain 
after we had passed on. The farmers ran 
out when they saw us, the farmers and the 
farmeresses and the young farmers. They 
waved their arms and tore at their hair. 
That is their way of expressing delight. It 
seemed rather uncouth, but I should not criti- 
cise any one so good as a farmer. With our 
chewing we made a noise that could be heard 
a long distance. It must have been music 
in the ears of the good farmers. 

Later. Well, I certainly feel good. This 
country is full of farmers. As soon as we 
have cleaned out one we rise on our beauti- 
ful wings and seek another. Such appetites ! 
Never was hunger so stinging, never so de- 
licious the art of appeasing it. And never 
were locusts blessed with such abundance. 
And yet ! — and yet ! As one grows older 
life grows sadder. Now^ about the farmer. 
I have had a terrible shock. He does not 



228 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

sow his fields for our benefit, I now feel sure, 
but for his own. He entices us here only to 
make use of us ; in truth, although I have 
never caught him in the act, I feel sure he 
feeds on us. This is almost too awful to 
breathe, yet I feel sure it is so. One farmer 
dug deep trenches and shovelled many of us 
in ; I saw it, but escaped myself as by a 
miracle. Once in, he built a fire over them. 
Unless he meant to eat them why should he 
roast them ? Alas ! alas ! Why cannot the 
farmer learn to live on grain and grass, as we 
do? Such food is far healthier and harms 
no one. But life is very sweet notwithstand- 
ing. Something so beautiful has happened. 
I have discovered how lovely is the young 
Eliza, the loveliest thing in all the world. I 
never knew it until my wings came ; then I 
found it out. I want to be near her all the 
time, and I am so happy I do not even care 
to eat if she will only look at me once in a 
while. Oh, I am so happy ! 

Later. I am still happy, excepting that I 
cannot escape a terrible sense of uneasiness 
on account of a great swarm of flies that has 
suddenly appeared. These creatures hover 
over us and fill me with a terror that is like 
to kill me. They do not seem to hurt us, 
and yet there -is that dread of them in the 
breasts of all of us. When we see one ap- 
proaching we dodge about in every direction, 



THE DIARY OF A LOCUST 229 

mad with fear. What does it mean ? Finally 
one succeeded in lighting on me ; it stayed 
only a moment and did not hurt me at all, 
and yet I was sick with fear. I think it 
must be a superstition, for it certainly did 
no harm. 

A few days later. Alas, there was cause 
for fear ! All at once I felt a pain in my 
side where that fly had been, — a burning, 
sharp pain that did not last long, but ever 
since then I have been in trouble. I no 
longer think of Eliza. I eat ravenously but 
fitfully, and more from a sense of duty than 




^v^^^^S^^ 



for pleasure. I seem to be ill-nourished. I 
think I must have been poisoned by that fly. 
All my happy feelings have departed. 

Later. (The story continued by another 
locust.) Poor John is dead. The fly laid 
an ^g<g on him, and it was the going in of 
the grub after it had hatched out that he 
felt. The terrible grub ate him up alive. It 
is just as well he is dead. Everything has 
gone wrong with our army. The farmer we 
now believe hates us. He destroys us in 
the most frightful and wholesale mannen 



230 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

Everything seems to feed on us. Our eggs 
have been laid, acres upon acres having been 
ploughed up with our ovipositors beforehand. 
Such a sight it was ! It would have been 
glorious if w^e could have looked forward to 
the hatching out of that brood. It would 
have covered half the earth, I think. But 
the ground is littered with our dead. Soon 
after the eggs w^ere laid most of the layers 
died. Then the others began to go. There 
is left only a little handful out of our great 
army. The nights are very cold. We are 
half numb all the time ; no pain, but utter 
loss of all interest in life. It is a great 
change, but I feel too stupid to care much. 
I feel sure that a few days more will see the 
end of all our vast army. What wnll become 
of those eggs ? Were the farmer what we 
had so fondly believed him — but alas, he is 
cruel ! What will become of those eggs ? 



XVII 

OUR EASTERN LOCUSTS 

THE Rocky Mountain locust has 
been more in the eye of the pub- 
lic than any other of the North 
American grasshopper kind, yet it 
is by no means the only destroyer, and as we 
know, it is very far from being the only lo- 
cust. Indeed, there are some five hundred 
species of locusts in the United States 
alone ; but fortunately only four or five of 
these are migratory. 

The Eastern farmer needed not to lie awake 
fearing a raid from the Rocky Mountain locust, 
even in its worst years, for it never has crossed 
the continent from west to east, and never 
will. Not that it would necessarily be de- 
terred by distance from paying an unwelcome 
visit to the Atlantic Coast, but in order to 
make its phenomenal journeys it is so ab- 
solutely dependent upon the wind that it 
streams along on the prevailing air currents ; 
and, fortunately for the Eastern farmer, these 
do not set from grasshopper-land his-way-ward, 
but go sweeping down the Mississippi Valley 



232 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

bearing the famished hordes to the grain-fields 
of Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, and all that 
region. Rather it should be said these currents 
did so bear them, since, fortunately, the raids 
of the migratory locusts to those parts must 
now be spoken of in the past tense. 

But though safe from that terrible scourge 
of the West, the Eastern States are not en- 
tirely innocent in the matter of harboring 
locusts : they shelter that most widespread 
of all the tribe, the little Red-Legged locust, 
a creature of such adaptability that it ranges 
successfully from the Arctic Circle to Central 
America and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 
That is to say, it is found in greater or less 
numbers over all that vast extent, and though 
it cannot in point of destructiveness vie with 
its near of kin, the Rocky Mountain locust, 
yet its depredations are more frequent, and 
it appears in more localities than any other 
of its race. It is one of New England's most 
relentless chasteners among the grasshop- 
per tribes. It is a true grass-eater, preferring 
rather low places and rank vegetation. In ap- 
pearance it is somewhat insignificant, being 
only about an inch long, with a greenish- 
brown body, long brownish wing covers, and 
clear hind wings ; its name, '' Red-legged," 
comes from the hind tibiae, w^hich are blood- 
red, with black spines. But it will not do 
to judge a Red-legged locust by appearances 



OUR EASTERN LOCUSTS 



^2>Z 



alone, for though insignificant in looks it is 
capable of great works. It is dangerously 
prolific; it appears most 
abundantly in seasons of 
extraordinary dryness, as 
is usual with all its tribe, 
and always with a splen- 
did appetite. As to habits, 
its story contains nothing 
new. It leaves its birth- 
place in the usual way 
and goes on a gorman- 
dizing raid, devouring 
everything, before it. 

On a much smaller 
scale it has repeated the 
history of the Western 
destroyer. In 1743, and 
again in 1756, it devas- 
tated New England to 
such an extent that the 
frightened people, not 




knowing what physical force to apply, had 
recourse to spiritual aid, days of fasting and 
prayer being appointed, 



234 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

From time to time we hear of incursions 
of locusts in all the Eastern and Southern 
States, and generally it is the Red-legged 
locust that thus distinguishes himself. He 
is particularly execrated along the North 
Atlantic Coast because of his fondness for 
salt grass, at times quite consuming the 
crop of marsh hay before the farmer has a 
chance to gather it; and since in some sec- 
tions this hay is the farmer's chief reliance 
for feeding his stock through the Winter, its 
loss is a serious matter. After consuming 
the meadows these gormands move back 
upon the other produce of the farm, leaving 
little or nothing for the rightful owner. 

In 1798 the locusts were particularly pes- 
tiferous in sections of New England, where 
they consumed even the laborers' garments 
hung up while the owners were at work ; 
they voraciously ate sawdust, biting out the 
loose particles in pine boards. These hearty 
eaters were doubtless the Red-legged variety. 

Here, as elsewhere with migratory species, 
when the wings are acquired the insects 
collect together and mount into the air m 
swarms, though they do not seem to be driven 
to this by necessity; and it is said they often 
return to the place whence they departed. 
With how cordial a welcome their home- 
coming must be greeted! 

It would seem that flying for flying's 



OUR EASTERN LOCUSTS 235 

sake is a favorite recreation of the aesthetic 
locust, who, having wings, believes in enjoy- 
ing them, and when he has no cause for 
true migration, satisfies his instinct by rising 
with numberless like-minded comrades and 
taking pleasure-trips in the upper air. The 
swarms thus formed are of very creditable 
proportions, though they do not seem ever 
to have been able to darken a New England 
sun. 

Although the Red-legged locust is so 
abundant and troublesome in the East it is 
by no means the only locust on the scene. 
There is the so-called Lesser Migratory 
locust, which often outdoes even the Red- 
legged raider in the extent of its depreda- 
tions, not only upon New England, but also 
in the Middle States and the South. 

But besides the gregarious species, there 
are many locusts of solitary habits, whose 
voracity, joined with that of the long-horned 
grasshoppers and crickets, — all good feeders 
and all lovers of man's crops, — forces us, 
willy-nilly, to share liberally the bounty of 
nature with these other children of the teem- 
ing earth. 

Although most of our locusts are modest 

in size, the South has one that is not, the 

Great Lubber grasshopper being a very giant 

of its kind. It is nearly three inches long, 

— as long as the migratory locust of the 



236 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 



East, — and very much heavier than that 
famous insect, though unlike that it is short 
of wing, which adds to its general appearance 
of clumsiness. When this first comes out 
in the Spring, it is a striking-looking infant, 
both for its large size and its fresh colors, 
being vivid black with yellow markings. It 
is strong and pert-looking, holding its head 
high, as though conscious of its superior 




beauty. It grows fast, eating what it can 
get; in Florida it prefers the aromatic leaves 
of the orange and lemon trees, to which 
it often does serious damage. When full 
grown, it is a large, thick-set creature of 
sluggish habits, quite gayly colored with red 
and yellow. Its corpulency sometimes sub- 
jects it to a very ignoble end, for the people 
kill it by merely throwing it hard against the 
sidewalk. Accidentally to step on a live one 
is an experience not soon to be forgotten. 

There is another of the Southern lubbers 
found farther west, and this one is so clumsy 



OUR EASTERN LOCUSTS 237 

as not to have any wings at all, or at least 
the merest rudiments ; but it eats as well as 
its winged relatives, and brings distress to 
the places that harbor it. 

Although the locust is so successful in the 
way of progeny, it has its troubles. As we 
know, everything with it depends upon cli- 
mate ; the largest swarm, covering hundreds 
of square miles, may be exterminated to a lo- 
cust, in spite of the billions of eggs correctly 
placed in the earth, by the advent of a cold, 
damp Spring. Instead of yet greater num- 
bers of swarming despoilers, the land smiles 
above tons of addled eggs, which go to en- 
rich the soil of the triumphant farmer. Even 
in their natural breeding-places all seasons 
are not alike favorable to the hatching of 
the eggs. Oftentimes several years will pass 
without the necessity of migrating to any 
distance, the very climatic conditions which 
operate against the development of the locusts 
working favorably for the growth of vegeta- 
tion, so that the limited numbers are able to 
find plenty of food near home. Climate is 
undoubtedly the greatest force in controlling 
the locust after the modern and concerted 
plans of man himself, who is learning by 
bitter experience to fight successfully. 

Besides these checks, however, there are 
numerous natural forces at work. One is a 
curious kind of fungus that attacks the insect, 



238 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 



quickly enveloping the whole body, covering 
it with a thick, whitish, felt-like growth. Who 
has not seen these mouldy-looking grasshop- 
pers attached, dead, to the grass stalks ? 
Again, one of the main uses of the locust 
on this earth is to feed some- 
thing. If the people of a favored 
land scorn him, there are num- 
berless less fastidious creatures 
on the watch to rejoice 
in his succulency and the 
agreeable flavor of his 
nutritious flesh. Such are 
certain large wasps. Rec- 




s»^/^ 



ognizing in the locust a highly concentrated 
and agreeable pabulum, they provision the 
dark underground nests in which their eggs 
are placed with well-stung but living locust ; 
for the sting, as we remember, paralyzes with- 
out otherwise injuring the victim. Let us 
hope, even though he is a locust, that his 
feelings as well as his muscles are rendered 
insensible to what is so soon to follow. 

Even the fly, with no strength and no 
sting, manages to include the locust in the 



OUR EASTERN LOCUSTS 239 

food of his precious progeny. There is one 
species, the Tachina fly, in appearance much 
like a large house-fly, that has the brazen habit 
of lighting on the locust and without any cere- 
mony attaching an egg to its person. The 
locust is none the worse for this, but in course 
of time the egg hatches into an evil grub that, 
though no larger than the head of a small pin, 
has the power, like the greatly exploited hole 
in the dyke, of destroying the whole com- 
munity. With its microscopic jaws it makes 
a hole in the armor of its unconscious host, 
enters thereat, and proceeds to consume his 
vitals. This not unnaturally ends the career 
of that particular locust ; and since these flies 
are sometimes exceedingly numerous, hov- 
ering in clouds over the locusts, they may 
render even a large swarm quite harmless. 

Of the many insects that consume and 
thus curtail the numbers of the grasshopper 
folk, certain tiny parasites rank high. These 
find their way to the eggs in the nests, or 
take up their abode on the adult insect. 
What summer idler has not noticed the little 
red dots that are often clustered about the 
upper part of the locust's legs, or under its 
neck, or at the bases of its wings ? These 
minute gormands gradually drain away the 
life of their victim by their numbers, doing 
to him what he through numbers has always 
been doing to the crops of the men of earth. 
All hail to the little red parasites ! 



240 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

Birds, of course, are inveterate locust- 
eaters, the size of the insect being the only 
difficulty to the gluttons that swallow their 
tidbits whole. 

The denizens of the farmyard would ask 
nothing more of fate than an unlimited sup- 
ply of young locusts all the Summer round; 
and their neighbors the prairie chickens and 
quails fully share their sentiments on the 
subject. In a locust-infested region they, 
like the Bushman, grow sleek and well fav- 
ored, the only bar to their bliss and the 
farmer's profit being the fact that the insects 
grow and get too large for them before they 
have had time to eat them all up. 

The favorite age of the delicacy is imme- 
diately after it hatches and when it is no 
larger than a grain of wheat. What mil- 
lions of these succulent morsels then slip 
down the throats of the gleeful gormands ! As 
the insects increase in size, they are of course 
consumed in diminishing numbers, the full- 
grown form being, alas ! too large even for 
the chickens, and far too large for most other 
birds. For nearly all kinds take a share in 
the bountiful feast, blackbirds, robins, larks, 
and crows falling upon it with amazing 
relish. 

In a contest of locust-eaters, however, that 
haughty American bird, the turkey, would 
easily bear away the first prize. To see a 



OUR EASTERN LOCUSTS 241 

flock of turkeys out on a grasshopper hunt 
is something to live for. With a shrewd- 
ness one would hardly expect from a creature 
with the head of a turkey, the flock stretches 
out in a long line, often forming a semicircle, 
then the birds march on over the field of 
martyrs, intent upon business, driving the 
frightened quarry before their heavy steps, 
and snapping up everyone that comes within 
reach. Thus they drive and gobble up the 
besieged army, until the wonder is that one 
small turkey can contain such numbers. 
Young turkeys, if given the chance, would 
fit themselves on this food alone to grace 
with unctuous and plump beauty the Thanks- 
giving carnival. 

The same is true of the gallant hog, who 
consumes locusts with the relish of a Bed- 
ouin of the desert, not even demanding that 
they be fried in oil or served with salt and 
spices, so eager is he to offer locust-fatted 
hams and bacon to the despoiled farmer, 
who, disdaining the crude insect, gratefully 
breakfasts on home-raised pork and imported 
beans. Toads, lizards, and snakes also lend 
their appetites to diminish the toothsome 
hordes. Indeed so many are the consumers 
of the appetizing locusts, and so destructive 
to them are climatic conditions, that it has 
been estimated that not more than one out of 

every ten eggs laid comes to maturity. What 

16 



242 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 



a task is theirs to produce creditable swarms 

under such conditions ! There are moments 

when one's sympathies veer violently around 

to the side of the 

locust, which is 

''game "if nothing 

else. 

Not out of de- 
spair at the perils 





which beset a locust's life, — though one 
begins to feel that this too might be under- 
standable, — but quite accidentally, the locust 
is said now and then to commit suicide. 
This it does by hopping recklessly among 
sharp-pointed grasses, which spear it between 
the folds of its armor. This must be of very 
rare occurrence, however, the whole tribe 
being armored as though on purpose to 
protect them against such accidents; to a 
soft-bodied grasshopper a spear of saw-grass 
would be as serious a matter as a row of 
steel blades to the naked body of a man. 
Particularly about the head and thorax 




OUR EASTERN LOCUSTS 243 

the plates of the locust's armor are large 
and heavy. Indeed it is oftentimes capar- 
isoned in a 
way that ab- 
surdly resem- 
bles the huge ^ 
leather collars 
worn by Euro- 
pean horses, the likeness being yet further 
heightened by its long face and large eyes. 

This resemblance is so obvious in Italy, 
where the big-collared horses do much abound, 
that the locust is known as a cavalletta, or 
little horse. In Germany it is the heupferd, 
or hay horse, since besides bearing the trap- 
pings of a horse it also eats hay. 

Some of our real locusts, with their heavy 
armor, almost merit the description of the 
fabulous insects of the Apocalypse, of whom 
we read: 

" And the shapes of the locusts were like unto 
horses prepared unto battle ; . . . and they had 
breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron." 

While the locusts as a rule have great 
poverty of ideas in dress and form, there is 
an occasional genius in the family, one at 
least among them having aspired to the 
more graceful grasshopper lines, with a re- 
sult that, though undeniably less clumsy, is 
somewhat fantastic. 



XVIII 

MEADOW GRASSHOPPERS AND KATYDIDS 

" Green little vaulter in the sunny grass, 
Catching your heart up at the feel of June ! " 

THUS sweetly sings Leigh Hunt of 
the meadow grasshopper, and right 
well the gay little vaulter merits a 
poet's happy thought. 
It is with relief that the summer idler 
turns from the unrestful performances of the 
locusts to contemplation of the pretty and 
harmless long-horned grasshoppers, which 
we call meadow grasshoppers when they pass 
their lives among the grasses and weeds, and 
katydids when they live up in the trees. 

They are all of them dressed in green. 
At least, with a very few exceptions they 
put on Summer's colors. They are graceful 
sprites with the daintiest of long legs, the 
females bearing sword-shaped or dagger- 
shaped ovipositors. It is they who have the 
thread-like antenna which they wave and 
dip about in such a pleasant manner. We 
seem quite to have left the world of sordid 
cares behind, the work-a-day world, where 



MEADOW GRASSHOPPERS 



245 



grasshoppers are made for use rather than 
for beauty, and to have entered into a sphere 
much more poetical and much more appro- 
priate to summer dreaming. 

The meadow grasshoppers are not great 
flyers, though their wings 
are often long and ample. 
They prefer to scramble 
in among the grass stems 
when danger threatens, 
and are able thus to dis- 
appear in a most aston- 
ishing manner, though 
the long and picturesque 
legs can jump well 
enough if necessity requires. 
There are a good many species 
of them, and they are marked 
and striped in a stylish manner 
that becomes the leisure class 
of their race. 

One little green fellow 
about three-quar- 
ters of an inch 



I 



I 






246 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

long, a native of New England, and common 
in its fields and meadows, has a brown stripe 
on top of his head and one on each side of 
the thorax, and rejoices in a fine-sounding 
Greek name, which, when translated, is better 
than high-sounding, for it means, '' I dance 
in the meadow," by which it is evident he 
can convert the scientist into a poet. 

The grasshoppers do not congregate to- 
gether like the locusts, but dance in the 
meadows where and when they please, with 
no great care as to what other dancers may 
be doing. And they do not fly for the fun 
of it, probably never going on excursions of 
any length, and — best of all from man's 
point of view — they are not seriously de- 
structive to vegetation ; for though, being 
plant-feeders, they take their share from the 
tables spread by nature over field and meadow, 
they have reasonable appetites and do not 
produce excessively large families. 

Indeed, if these were the only representa- 
tives of the race, one could think of the 
grasshopper tribes with no other than agree- 
able feelings for the pretty chirpers, unless 
occasionally a wave of resentment should 
sweep over the unappreciative listener to 
their summer hubbub ; for the long-horned 
grasshoppers are the musicians of the whole 
race. If they cannot rival the locusts in 
flight, neither can the locusts approach them 



MEADOW GRASSHOPPERS 



247 



in power to make a racket. The feeble note 
of the fiddling locusts, to which belong the 
migratory species, is 
generally quite inau- 
dible at a short dis- 
tance, though such 
species as use rat- 
tat-ting or snapping 
implements make 
themselves heard 
far and near. None 
of them, how- 
ever, can equal 
the best per- 
formers among 
their long- 
horned kin- 
dred, to which 
belong the un- 
rivalled katy- 
dids. 







Wandering about the summer fields, sit- 
ting down on pleasant banks to rest and 



248 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 



watch, one soon strikes up acquaintance with 
the meadow grasshoppers, and sooner or later, 
by the exercise of skill and patience in getting 
close without alarming the 
timid performers, one will 
be sure to see the musical 
instrument in operation. 

The players have no bars 
on their legs by which to 
fiddle out love-notes from 
resounding wing, but they 
have the wings themselves 
modified into 
most admirable 
tambourines for 
voicing their 
senti- 
ments. 





MEADOW GRASSHOPPERS 249 

Catching a male meadow grasshopper and 
looking closely at the upper ends of the wing 
covers, we shall see that they appear to be 
swollen and provided with curious ridges. 
Opening the wing a little and still peering 
closely, we see that the modified portions are 
a sort of rounded drum-head, delicate, some- 
times transparent, but strong and capable 
of producing powerful vibrations in the air. 
They differ in appearance with the differ- 
ent species, but all have them in some 
form. When the musician is about to per- 
form he raises the wing covers slightly, and 
then by some force starts these curious 
little drum-heads to quivering. His whole 
body often seems to flutter with the joyful 
exercise. 

Each species has its own cry, which one 
can easily learn to recognize. And though 
the clamor may at moments become too dis- 
tracting, who would banish the happy grass- 
hopper from his summer hours? All people 
have loved the merry musicians, and all 
poets have sung their praises from the bards 
of ancient Greece to our own Keats, whose 
tribute to them is the most charming of 
all: 

" The poetry of earth is never dead : 
When all the birds are faint with the hot sun 
And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run 
From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead : 



250 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

That is the grasshopper's, — he takes the lead 
In summer luxury, — he has never done 
With his delights ; for, when tired out with fun, 
He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed." 

It is hard to decide which is the more 
charming, the dainty meadow sprite dancing 
and chirping among the tall grasses, or that 
delight of childhood, the katydid. Who has 
not in his credulous years puzzled over the 
mystery? Standing by the window in the 
cool night and listening for the curious con- 
fession that is sure to come with shrill 
insistence, the imaginative child cannot 
help rounding out the tale. What did Katy 
do? No one is able to tell, but something 
strange and impressive she must have done. 
Something not to her credit, judging from 
the equally insistent denial that so often 
follows the shrill affirmation : 

'' Katy did." " Katy did n't." '' Katy did- 
did-did." '' Katy did n't, Kate ; Katy did n't." 

So it goes on endlessly, with never another 
word to make clear poor Katy's waywardness. 
And we all join heartily with Oliver Wendell 
Holmes in his feeling for Katy, which he 
confides to us in a poem we all know : 

*' I love to hear thine earnest voice, 
Wherever thou art hid, 
Thou testy little dogmatist, 
Thou pretty Katydid ! 



MEADOW GRASSHOPPERS 251 

Thou mindest me of gentlefolks, — 

Old gentlefolks are they, — 
Thou say'st an undisputed thing 

In such a solemn way." 

There are several species of katydids in 
this country, and the cry varies in different 
sections, so that in some places one hears 
only the oft-iterated '' Katy did." In other 
places there may be several extra cricks — 
giving emphasis to the original statement, 
or else the well-accented call of four notes, 
'' Katy did n't." 

The katydids, most picturesque of the 
grasshopper tribes, are tree-dwellers, one and 
all. Disdaining to live on the ground, they 
betake themselves to the high places, where 
of course their lives are in danger. But 
they have resources : their dress is an ad- 
mirable disguise, and further to escape the 
prying eyes of hungry birds they maintain a 
discreet silence during the daytime. 

But when the heads of the birds are safely 
tucked under their wings, oh, then do the 
katydids lift up their voices in shrill ecstasies 
that can be heard for a quarter of a mile or 
more. Then do they spread their wings 
and fly from tree to tree, sometimes making 
the mistake of coming in at an open window, 
drawn by that blinding mystery, a lighted 
lamp. Under the safe curtain of the night 
they enact the little drama of their lives, and 



252 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

as if to make up for lost time, ungallantly 
shout singly and in chorus the news of 
Katy's perversity, until we sometimes wish 
poor Katy at the bottom of the deep sea, 
together with all the chroniclers of her 
misdeeds. 

In the North we are seldom troubled by 
the voices of the katydids, as we do not 
often hear more than one at a time, but in 
some parts of the South half-a-dozen may 
select the same tree from which to shout 
their tribute to Katy, and then — well, one 
could get on without them.^ 

When three or four katydids get hysteri- 
cal in a tree-top close to one's window and 
their din becomes quite unendurable, a short 
respite can be gained by striking the trunk 
of the tree. Instantly there is a welcome 
hush, the performers above your head wait- 
ing in deep suspicion to see what is going to 
happen next; and they will continue thus to 
wait for several minutes before gathering 
courage to continue their interrupted concert. 
They are the m^ost timid of creatures, and it 
is very difficult to catch one unless by acci- 
dent it comes into the room, or unless it gets 
'' caught out " when day dawns, and takes 
refuge in some low-growing shrub w^here 
your keen eyes spy it out. Even so it may 
escape by the quickness with which it flees 
your fearful presence. 



MEADOW GRASSHOPPERS 



253 



Besides their romantic if somewhat mo- 
notonous reference to the unknown Katy, 
these grasshoppers attract us by their per- 
sonal appearance; they are so green and so 
long-legged and have such pretty, broad, 
leaf-like wings. The wing covers are dainty 
affairs, but if you can per- 
suade one to spread the 
inner wings, or, persuasion 
failing, use gentle force to 
that end, you will discover 
exquisite gauze-like objects, 
semi-transparent and 
beautifully marked 
with delicate lines. 
Living always in the 




trees, the katydids place their eggs on the 
twigs, or sometimes on the leaves. In 
Florida the strong evergreen leaf of the 
orange makes an admirable resting-place 
for the eggs of some species. The orderly 
katydid lays them in a row along the edge 
of the leaf, tucking one slightly under the 



254 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

edge of the next, thus giving a very decora- 
tive appearance to the leaf so ornamented. 
Where the eggs are laid on twigs the bark 
is first roughened to help them to remain 
attached. 

Although our Eastern katydids are green, 
out West among the mountains there is a 
little nun in gray that, thus dressed, escapes 
notice among its sober surroundings. 

The wings of the katydids are like the 
ample cloaks of the troubadours of old, or like 
the skirts of bygone starched and stately 
dames, yet the prim little owners can fly 
well enough, fluttering through the air in a 
most pretty and ladylike fashion. 

In our country all the katydid-like grass- 
hoppers are true katydids, but this is not the 
case everywhere. In the Austrian wheat- 
fields there is a fine, large, green grasshopper 
with the broad w^ngs and general make-up 
of our katydid. But it lives in the grain 
instead of in trees, and it has no knowledge 
of Katy, or if it has, it keeps quiet on the 
subject. Raising its wings as a katydid 
does, it shrills out several notes on its tam- 
bourine, but notes that bear no resemblance 
to the well-knowm call of our vocalist. It is 
a great ornament to the wheat, though the 
farmer who owns the fields may be too 
narrow-minded to appreciate this. One can 
but admire its taste in choosing to spend its 



MEADOW GRASSHOPPERS 255 

life in the wheat, for what more enchanting 
forest could a tiny inhabitant roam in ? 
Where else are the trees so tall and straight, 
so close-grown, with such golden trunks and 
bending crowns of fruit ? Some of us would 
enjoy living in a wheat-field even though 
not katydids and not small enough to have 
the grain-stalks assume the proportions of 
forest trees. 

In these same wheat-fields is another long- 
horned grasshopper, very large, its dark green 
body heavily marked with brown and black, 
and having tremendously long legs, though its 
wings are short, sometimes shorter than the 
abdomen. It is a noticeable-looking creature, 
and one's first impulse is to pick it up — to 
get a better view. Easier said than done ! It 
may have short wings, but there is no defect 
in its ears, and at the slightest sound away 
it goes scrambling between the wheat-stalks 
at a pace which causes you soon to give up 
the unequal chase. For besides not wanting 
to break down the wheat, one might as well 
look for the proverbial needle in a haystack 
as for a grasshopper in a wheat-field if it 
chooses to lose itself. 

By careful manoeuvring, however, and tak- 
ing plenty of time, an unwary straggler that 
comes out on the edge of his cover can occa- 
sionally be snatched up. One's sensation 
when actually feeling one of these longed-for 



256 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 



prizes struggling in his grasp must resemble 
that of the ardent fisherman when a hard- 
won trout comes to his eager hand. These 
large Austrian grasshoppers are beautiful to 
watch ; for not only can one see all parts of 
their structure very distinctly, but also their 
interesting motions, for even in captivity 

they are al- 
ways busy, 
eating, or 
cleaning 
their feet 
or bodies. 
And even 
in captiv- 
ity the im- 
pulse to 
sing is not 
to be resisted, and 
the beauty in the 
bottle on the table 
will raise its wings 
and discourse sounds 
— if not sweet, yet 
summer-like. 
In some countries there are such agree- 
able chirpers, or else such appreciative lis- 
teners, that grasshoppers are kept like birds. 
In Japan the people have tiny bamboo cages 
for their little songsters of the grasses, which 
seems peculiarly appropriate to the Japanese 




MEADOW GRASSHOPPERS 257 

home. In Spain and other European coun- 
tries the grasshoppers are caged and enjoyed, 
but the cricket seems to be the favorite 
insect musician of the Western world. In 
our own country there are performers whose 
note is pleasing, — though, truth to tell, for 
constant hearing many of us might prefer 
the low trilling call of some of the locusts to 
the loud cry of the tambourine players. 

Some ears, however, are not disturbed by 
the shrillest performers, and for the simple 
reason that they do not hear them. Beyond 
a certain number of vibrations a second, the 
human ear cannot respond to «sound. More- 
over, some ears are far more limited than 
others. Thus it happens that two may go 
to the meadows together, and while one of 
them hears a mighty chorus of shrill cries 
resounding on all sides of him, the other 
hears nothing at all. The world is silent 
excepting for the voice of his companion, 
the sighing of the leaves on the trees, and 
the other low-pitched sounds of nature. It 
is quite credible that even the best ears fail 
to catch many a sound that stirs the feel- 
ings of the little residents at the grass-roots. 
There may be a whole orchestra charming 
the Summer far beyond any power in us to 
hear. 

There are so many grasshoppers in the 
world ! Besides the ordinary kinds that 

17 



258 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

would not excite any special attention on 
our part, there are many strange tropical 
forms in both the long-horned and the short- 
horned species. The tropics are rich in them, 
as in all other forms of life ; they have, be- 
sides, certain giant forms, others of brilliant 
coloring, and some having legs or bodies 




grotesquely ornamented with spines and 
protuberances. 

And there are those what-to-call-thems, 
that are neither grasshopper, locust, nor 
cricket in looks, and that yet remind us of 
all three. They are variously called Shield- 
backed grasshoppers, and Cricket-like grass- 
hoppers, being dull-colored, wingless, and 
given to living in the dark. Some of the 
cave-dwellers of near kin to these have no 
eyes and are of a pale and sickly hue. 

As a rule these nondescripts are not 



MEADOW GRASSHOPPERS 259 

commonly seen, though in some parts of the 
South a large, long-legged species, whose 
mailed back reminds one of a shrimp, is 
very much in evidence in the nooks and 
corners of sheds. But when we think of 
grasshoppers it is of the pleasant little 
dancers in the meadow and not of these 
degenerate relatives. 



H 



XIX 

THE CRICKET 

ERE, at least, is one who needs no 
introduction ! Everybody, whether 
summer idler in country fields or 
not, knows the cricket, merry house- 
mate who takes up his station with us by 
the fireside. 

He comes out in the evening, when the 
cheery farmhouse is redolent with sweet 
cider and apples baking before the open fire ; 
and when the children are cracking the nuts 
they have gathered and popping the corn 
they have raised, he comes out and sings to 
them with all the abandon of a hot Fall day 
on the sunny rocks of a pleasant pasture. 

It is of him that Keats thus sweetly 
sings : 

"The poetry of earth is ceasing never: 
On a lone winter evening, when the frost 
Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills 
The cricket's song, in warmth increasing ever, 
And seems, to one in drowsiness half lost, 
The grasshopper's among some grassy hills." 

And then there is that immortal '' Cricket 
on the Hearth," which Dickens has given to 



THE CRICKET 261 

us, and which every man, woman, and child 
either has read or ought to read. 

The house-cricket is not a native of this 
country, though in a few places it appears 
as an immigrant ; yet we have our household 
fairy, as some species of our field-crickets 
often take to the chimney corner. 

The cricket is not beautiful, but he is 
funny. He is black or dark brown, with a 
large head and large eyes which, give him 
a certain air of intelligence that no doubt is 
well justified by the facts. He is so alert 
that when we wish to be very emphatic 
we say of some one that he is as spry as 
a cricket. Spry ! Try to catch him on a 
late summer day when he has come out to 
sun himself at the edge of a stone. You 
will need to be spryer than a cricket if you 
succeed, for his strong hind legs well un- 
derstand the useful art of jumping, though, 
truth to tell, he cannot jump as high or as 
far as a grasshopper, but scurries out of the 
way in quick short hops, which gain his end 
perfectly. 

Hard as he is to capture, he is worth the 
trouble, for he makes a very agreeable com- 
panion shut up in a box or a well-ventilated 
bottle. He will surely sing if he is well fed 
and of the singing gender. 

A good way to find him first and then to 
catch him — if you can — is to stand very 



262 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 



still and locate his voice ; then advance 
rather close to where you think it comes 
from, which may be far enough from the 
right spot, as he sometimes seems to be a 
tricksy ventriloquist for your benefit. He 
will invariably stop singing, but invariably 
his fears will yield to the greater pressure of 
X the song that is in him, and 

\ — unless you are altogether 
too close- — he will soon begin 
again. Listen as before until 
you have re- 
located him, and 
if quite close, 
try to see him 
as well as hear 
him before tak- 
ing another step. 
Proceed in this 
way until you 
have found him, 
for he will always be out-of-doors, at some 
distance even from the door of his home, 
paying court to an obdurate lady-love. 

Very slowly and gradually get close enough 
to see him standing with raised and quivering 
wings, head down, antennae coaxingly pointed 
lady-ward. Then, if your conscience will allow 
you to disturb such bliss, suddenly grab for 
him. Perhaps you will get him. If not, you 
may as well go in search of another cricket 




THE CRICKET 263 

When finally you succeed in making a 
capture, put him in your box and keep on 
trying until you have caught a mate for him. 
These two, if well fed on bits of fruit, de- 
cayed vegetable matter, or even cooked meat, 
and given frequent drops of water, — for 
they are thirsty souls, — will be quite happy, 
particularly if you give them two or three 
inches of earth at the bottom of their prison 
for the eggs when the time comes, and a 
little stone and some leaves to hide under. 

They will become quite tame in a short 
time; but if you really want to keep them, 
cover their box with wire netting — other- 
wise if they decide to move they will quickly 
chew a hole in cardboard, paper, or even thin 
wood, and depart without so much as a 
good-bye chirp to their bereft captor. 

If you have their peace and happiness 
at heart, be sure not to put more than one 
male in the cage. Where two are present, 
jealousy, rancor, rage, and finally slaughter 
may be the result; for crickets are hot- 
headed and belligerent creatures, to whom 
a fight is always welcome. 

Crickets also develop a lamentable taste 
for brother insect when confined in a box 
with others of the six-legged tribe, and are 
as fond of locust as is the Bedouin of the 
desert or the Digger Indian. 

Having made one's captures and got the 



264 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

family settled and reconciled, a good deal of 
entertainment can be derived from watching 
the little minstrel shake his tambourines, as 
well as from examining his person. 

The cricket is a homespun rustic, quite 
plebeian in form, having none of the grace of 
the meadow grasshopper, none of the beauty 
of the katydid, not even comparing favorably 
in looks with the locust. But with him, as 
with the rest of us, a good heart counts for 
more than good looks, and even deludes one 
into imagining external beauty ; yet he is not 
always able to cajole his human admirers 
into the belief that his shrill cry is enchant- 
ing. Thus the poet Cowper implores him : 

" Little inmate, full of mirth, 
Chirping on my kitchen hearth, 
Whereso'er be thine abode^ 
Always harbinger of good. 
Pay me for thy warm retreat 
With a song more soft and sweet; 
In return thou shalt receive 
Such a strain as I can give." 

Yet many good souls find in his voice 
only the pleasing character of the singer 
himself. As Gilbert White of Selborne 
tells us, " The shrilling of the field-cricket, 
though sharp and stridulous, delights some 
hearers, filling their minds with a train of 
summer ideas of everything that is rural, 
verdurous, and joyous/' 



THE CRICKET 



265 



The wings of the cricket are flat across his 
back and bend down on either side, making 
a sort of box-cover to his body. They are 
short and broad, for he believes that wings 
were made for singing, and cares very little 
about them as organs of flight. The whole 
top of the male wing is modified for purposes 
of song, being crossed by raised ridges and 




its edges supplied with a sort of scraper. 
When about to play, the wings are raised 
somewhat from the body and rapidly rubbed 
together, which sets them into such vibra- 
tions that the air all around is thrown into 
tuneful tremblings. 

The wings of the female, of course, are 
unadorned with crosswise ridges, which is 
one way to know her; another is the straight, 
lance like ovipositor, which is used for plac- 
ing the eggs in the earth. 



266 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

Like the grasshopper, the cricket has his 
ears on the tibiae of the fore legs, and that 
he hears well there is no reason to doubt. 

Our crickets live in holes, under stones, or 
in rubbish piles, where they hide away ; they 
come out to sun themselves, and often stand 
in their doorway with their antennae waving 
in the air. They dodge back or scramble to 
cover in the most ludicrous manner when so 
much as a shadow passes over them. They 
have very long and sensitive antennae to help 
them about their dark corridors, into which 
they often carry their provisions to eat in 
peace and quiet. 

The time to make the acquaintance of 
crickets is in the Fall of the year, for then 
they have their growth, and, what is more 
to the point, their musical wings. While 
some winter over, as a rule the voice of the 
cricket, like that of the grasshopper, belongs 
to the latter part of the season ; for the 
crickets run the usual course of their tribe, 
hatching from the egg in the early Summer, 
starting on their earthly career without wings, 
eating, moulting, and finally getting the pre- 
cious organs by which they can produce their 
merry chirping, and at least some of them 
can fly when they wish. 

European crickets appear to be distinctly 
more belligerent than ours, as the boys catch 
the common brown chirper by thrusting a 



THE CRICKET 267 

straw into its hole, when the enraged tenant 
grasps it so firmly that he is pulled out and 
often put to the base use of serving as fish 
bait. In France this unreasoning habit of 
the cricket has given rise to a proverb for 
the benefit of those deserving it — ''More 
foolish than a cricket." The European 
cricket is so belligerent as to be constantly 
fighting with its cricket neighbors, and like 
the mantis, it is sometimes made to enter 
the lists for the entertainment of its noble 
captors. 

The cricket's chirp, coming as it so fre- 
quently does from the chimney corner, is the 
best known of insect voices, and many think 
his little lordship the merriest soul alive. 
To have him about is a sign of good for- 
tune, and his leaving a house he has been 
used to favor with his presence is a sign 
that some catastrophe is at hand, — in some 
places that a member of the family is about 
to die. If the cheerful voice reappears, how- 
ever, that is a most favorable sign, betoken- 
ing prosperity. Of course it is very unlucky 
indeed to kill the cricket on the hearth or to 
drive him away. In some places the merry 
sounds from the chimney indicate to the 
blushing maiden that her lover is on the 
way. We all know Dot's opinion in ''The 
Cricket on the Hearth," — "It's sure to 
bring us good fortune, John! It always has 



268 



GRASSHOPPER LAND 



done so. To have a Cricket on the Hearth 
is the luckiest thing in all the world ! " 

In some parts of our South there is 
the odd superstition that the crickets gath- 
ered about the warm hearth are old folks, 
whom of course it would be a great sin 
to kill. 

While most supersti- 
tions regard the cricket 
as a benefactor and a , , 
joyful companion, there ^\^^s^ 
is the other side ^;\fw^ 

of 




the black little chirper is very black indeed, 
— of heart as well as of body, — and brings 
misfortune to those whom he visits, his 
cry even foreboding death in the family. 
Such prejudiced listeners to his merry tune 
are few, however, and the belief in his good- 
ness is far more widespread. 



THE CRICKET 269 

Even Milton admits this innocent mirth- 
maker into his sombre '' II Penseroso," telling 
us that for purposes of meditation 

" Some still removed place will fit, 
Where glowing embers through the room 
Teach light to counterfeit a gloom, — 
Far from all resort of mirth. 
Save the cricket on the hearth." 

The song of the cricket is listened to with 
peculiar delight in many parts of the world. 
We are told that in Africa crickets are reared 
on purpose for their voices, and sold to the 
people, who believe that the soothing cry 
induces sleep. In Madagascar also crickets 
are raised for their voices, and because they 
are believed to be sacred insects. The rich 
keep large cages of them. 

A similar superstition is found among the 
Roman Catholics of Europe, who believe 
that the cricket is sacred, it having clung to 
the robe of Jesus and ascended with him into 
heaven. For this reason crickets are caught 
on Ascension Day and kept in little bamboo 
or wicker cages. The tiny prisoner is well 
cared for, since the length of time it can be 
kept alive decides as to whether its owner is 
to have a long or a short life. 

In the island of Sumatra there is a black 
cricket which is regarded almost with adora- 
tion by the natives. 



2^Q GRASSHOPPER LAND 

Its chirping cry has given the cricket its 
name among several nations, the French 
cri-cri being clearly onomatopoetic, as are 
probably our name for it and the similar 
Dutch krekel and the Welsh cricell or 
cricella. 

In Jamaica the cricket is valued as an 
article of food, and far more than the locust 
or grasshopper it seems to have been used to 
cure the sick, a favorite mode of preparation 
being to reduce the little creature to ashes, 
and then apply it in various ways to 
suffering humanity. 

Although the common brown 
crickets are vegetable feeders, 
they live on decaying matter 
rather than on growing plants, 
and while they occasionally help 
themselves to tubers and live 
roots and some kinds of fruit, 
on the whole they are not in- 
jurious to man's crops. 

There are not many species 
of crickets, yet the family pos- 
sesses some queer enough mem- 
bers, among them being the 
odd-looking Mole Cricket, all 
soft and downy like a mole and 
with his fore legs developed into broad tools 
for digging. As one would expect, being such 
a digger he lives in the ground, making long 




THE CRICKET 271 

tunnels, in some of which are chambers for 
holding the eggs. 

Having taken to an underground life, he 
no longer needs hopping legs, and so we find 
his hind legs quite ordinary, all his genius, 
like that of the mantis, being expressed in 
the greatly modified fore legs. 

The young mole crickets, however, are 
able to leap, and it is only after several 
years of growth that they acquire the lim- 
ited, but for a mole cricket perfect, develop- 
ment of the underground dwellers. The 
wings are small, as one would expect, though 
they are by no means useless; for though' 
the mole cricket is not noted for his, power 
of flight, he frequently lifts up his voice, 
shouting grew, grew, grew, two or three 
times successively, and then after a pause 
beginning all over again. His voice is 
pitched lower than the voices of the other 
crickets, and he begins his grew, grew, grew, 
in the middle of the afternoon, the cry be- 
coming more vigorous toward night. One 
would think such a life might subdue his 
tunefulness ; but no, down in his dark bur- 
row he shakes his little wings and sings 
away as merrily as the denizens of the upper 
world. 

Since the mole cricket has a fondness for 
plant roots, he is a nuisance in some parts 
of the country, where he appears in large 



272 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

numbers. Porto Rico has a mole cricket that 
she would be glad to donate to any one who 
would take it ; for so effective is the little 
digger that it ranks as the most serious in- 
sect pest of the island, annually damaging 
the crops, particularly of sugar and tobacco, 
to the value of over one hundred thousand 
dollars. 

The most absurd of all the crickets are 
tiny flat creatures, about a tenth of an inch 
long, that live in the nests of ants. What 
they do there, and whether invited or not, I 
for one should like to know. 

About as far from the mole cricket as any- 
thing well could be in personal appearance 
is the dainty little Snowy Tree Cricket, or 
Climbing Cricket as it is also called. 

This fairy is pale green or ivory white, 
with very long antennae. It is a little thing, 
its body being about half an inch long. Its 
wings, though longer than the body, are 
thin, transparent, and exceedingly delicate in 
appearance. But with these fragile organs 
it can make the night ring. Who has not 
heard of a summer evening a shrill re-teat^ 
re-teat, re-teat, endlessly repeated ? Who 
makes this sound ? Some strange little liz- 
ard or tree-frog up in the branches over our 
heads ? No, this voice which has puzzled 
many a listener — for the vocalist is less 
often seen than any of the others — comes 



THE CRICKET 



273 



from the snowy tree cricket ; a voice so 
dreamy at times and so pervading that it 
has attracted the notice of many a human 
dreamer. Hawthorne says 
of it that could moonlight 
be heard it would sound 
that way ; he also calls it 
audible stillness." 
This 
vocalist 




his singing to the still hours of the night, but 
chirps away in the daytime as well, though 
his day song is far less noticeable in the 
chorus of other insects than in the compara- 
tive stillness of the night. Nor, we are told, 
is his sopg quite the same at night as in 
the daytime, the difference in temperature 
probably accounting for the difference in 
sound, for many insects give shriller notes 



274 GRASSHOPPER LAND 

under the influence of the warm sun than 
in the lower temperature of the night. 

The snowy tree cricket ought to be 
man's friend, since it lives on plant lice and 
other injurious insects, but it has an unfor- 
tunate habit of choosing the pithy stems of 
berry bushes in which to lay its eggs. It 
pierces holes with its strong ovipositor and 
often so weakens the stem that it breaks off 
in the wind and is unable to produce fruit. 
In some places where blackberries and rasp- 
berries are raised for market this dainty sprite 
has proven to be a veritable nuisance. But 
on the whole we can forget its misdeeds and 
listen to its voice with unmixed pleasure. 

The dreamy cry wavering through the 
moonlight night is a fitting good-bye from 
the grasshopper tribe to the summer idler 
who has spent his days dallying with the 
absurd little people. 



Index 



Index 



Abdomen of grasshopper, 92-97, 99, 100 ^ 

African locust swarms, 134-138, 190; used as food, 174-179 \ 

Air tubes of insect, 95-97 
America and the locust plague, 142. See Rocky Mountain locusts 

rt«^ United States 
Anacreon's reference to mantis, 1 1 1 
Antennae of insects, 75-83, 90-92 

Ants — what it means to them to lose their antennae, 83 
Apocalypse, quoted, 147, 195, 243 
Appetite of grasshoppers, 51, ^Si S1-> 5^, 85 
Arabian legend concerning locusts, 150 
Arctic hare, protective coloring of, 67 
Argentine Republic locust swarm, 148, 199 
Armor, or bony skeleton, of grasshopper, 242 
Artificial locust eggs, trade in, 215, 216 
Ascension Day crickets, 269 
Australian locust plague, 142 
Austrian katydid, 254, 256 

Bagdad, 180 

Balance of the body in jumping, 22, 23 

Bees, spines on the legs of, 25 ; eyes, •]^ ; how to hold, 98; ovipositor 

and sting, loi, 102, 104; honey-bees, 104 
Beetles, 37, 50 

Bible, quoted, 134, 135, 143, 157-159^ i89» 190 
Birds feed upon locusts, 240 

Blood, shed by oil-beetle, 89; the nutritive fluid of insects, 96, 97 
Body parts of grasshopper, 17, 18 
Brain of grasshopper, 41, 71, 72 
Breathing apparatus of grasshopper, 95, 96 
Bushmen's locust food, 177 
Butterfly, thorax of, 19 

Canadian provinces wasted by locust swarms, 206, 214 
Canary Islands devastated by locust swarms, 139 
Caterpillar, defensive odor of, 89; pores of air tubes, 96 
Chilean Indians use locusts as food, 184 

China and the locust plague, 141, 154; locusts an article of food, 181 ; 
means of driving them out, 192 



278 INDEX 

Chinese mantis fights, 117 

Chirping of grasshoppers. 59-65 

Chitin, 52 

Church warring against locusts, 193 

Cicada, 132 

Climate's influence over locust swarms, 237 

Climber, the grasshopper as a, 26, 30 

Climbing cricket. See Snowy tree cricket 

Cockroach, 79, 80, %Z, 108, no 

Colorado locusts, 212, 213 

Colors of grasshoppers, 26. 49, 66-70 : of tumblebugs, 39 ; of beetles, 
50 ; protective, 66 : of frogs, 66 ; of arctic hares, 67 ; of Hzards, 67 ; 
of crickets, 67; of katydids, 67, 254; of peacocks, 69, 70; of man- 
tes, 122; of walking-sticks, 126 

Cowper, William, quoted, 264 

Cricket-like grasshoppers, 258 

Crickets, 61, 65-68, ?>^, 99, 257, 260-274 

Croton bugs, 1 10 

Curative power ascribed to mantis, 115 

Cyprus, locusts in, 150 ; how they have affected its history, 168-172 

Darwin, Charles, quoted, 148 

Defensive odors and exudations, 84-90 

Democritus, quoted, 191 

"Devil-horse," III. vS'^f Mantis 

Diary of a locust, 218-230 

Dickens, Charles, quoted, 260, 267 

Digger Indians as locust-eaters, 186, 187 

Diodorus Siculus, quoted, 181 

Disks on feet of flies and grasshoppers, 26-30 

Dried locusts an article of commerce, 179 

Drill, ovipositor used as a, 99, 100 

Drones, 102 

Ears, grasshoppers'. 40-43, 72; crickets', 266 

East Indies devastated by locust swarms, 141 

Eggs, of grasshopper, 100, loi, 104, 105, 131; of mantis, 122; of 

walking-stick, 127; of katydid, 253, 254. See Locusts 
Egyptian locusts, 134 
Egyptian scarab, 40 
Empire County Argus, quoted, 186 
"Entomology," Packard, 208 

Europe devastated by locust swarms, 138-141, 149, 152-154 
European cricket, 266 
Eyes of grasshopper, 72-75 

Feet of grasshoppers, 21, 26-30 ; of flies, 26-29 
Female grasshopper dumb, 64. 65 ; cricket, 261, 26| 
Fighting crickets, 263, 266, 267 



INDEX 279 

Fires on mountain tops destroy locust swarms, 155 

Flies, feet of, 26-29; antennae, 81 ; feed upon locusts, 238 

Food, locusts used as, 173-188 

Foot-pads of flies and grasshoppers, 26-30, 92 

Fowls feed upon locusts, 240 

Frogs, as jumpers, 22, 23; protective coloring of, 66 

Fungus destructive to locusts, 237 

Government extermination of locusts, 216, 217 

Grasping Oi'thoptera^ 108 

Great lubber grasshopper, 235, 236 

Greek reverence for mantis, 112; use of locusts for food, 183 

Green blood of Florida fly, 96 

Harvest-fly, 132 

Hasselquist, , quoted, 184 

Hatching of grasshoppers' eggs, 51, roi, 105 

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, quoted, 273 

Head of grasshopper composed of rings, 93 

" Health food " possibilities of the locust, 187 

Hearing-sense of insects, 43, 266 

Hiding on a grass stem, 30 

" History of the West Indies," Martyr, 185 

Hogs feed upon locusts, 241 

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, quoted, 250 

Homer, quoted, 61 

Honey-bees, 104 

Horse-like appearance of grasshopper, 243 

Hottentot superstitions concerning mantis, 113 ; use of locusts as food, 

177 ; superstitions about locusts, 195 
Hunt, Leigh, quoted, 244 
Hunter wasps, 103 

India and the locust plague, 142-144 

Insects' legs, number of, 13 

Insect sounds inaudible to some, 257 

Jaeger, the naturalist, quoted, 146, 152 
Jamaica, crickets in, 270 
Japanese caged insects, 256 
Javanese mantis fights, 117 
John the Baptist's food of locusts, 183 
Jumping Orthoptera^ 108 

Jumping power and apparatus of grasshoppers, 11, 12, 16, 20-24, 26; 
of man, 21, 23 ; of frogs, 22, 23 

Kansas locust swarms, 212 

Katydids, protective coloring of, d']^ 254; antennae, 81, 82; general 

characteristics, 244, 250-256 
Keats, John, quoted, 249, 260 
Kick of grasshopper, 24, 25 



28o INDEX 

Largest locusts of tradition, 197 

Layard, Austen H., 180 

Leaf-insect, East Indian, 129 

Legs of grasshoppers, 11-13, 16-26, 33-35, 60 ; of various insects, 12, 

35. 37, 40 
Lesser migratory locust, 235 

Life-span of tlie grasshopper, 45, S7 '■> oi insects, 104, 105 
Lizards, protective coloring of, 67 ; feed upon locusts, 241 
Locusts, characteristics of, 131, 132, 134; derivation of name, 132, 

133 

Egi^s : manner of laying, 131, 163, 164; breeding-place in 
Hungary, 149; extermination, 149, 150, 210, 211, 214-217; collec- 
tion of, 150, 163, 215, 216; favorable breeding-places, 161, 204, 
205, 207, 209, 211, 212, 214. 

Swarms: breeding-places, 134, 160, 162, 163, 168, 198, 200; 
carried into sea, 135, 136, 138; cause pestilence, 136, 138, 208 ; 
cause famine, 137, 143, 144, 163, 203, 205, 207; travel on wind, 138, 
160, 166, 204, 209-211 ; in Italy, 138 ; in France, 138; in Canary 
Islands, 139; efforts to exterminate winged swarms, 140, 151, 
154, 155, 207; universally destructive, 140; in Europe, 140, 141, 
152-154; ate garments, etc., 141, 207, 213; in East Indies, 141; 
in China, 141, 154 ; in Philippines, 142 ; size of swarms, 142-144, 
146, 148, 153, 206; in Australia, 142; in New Guinea, 142; in 
India, 142-144; in United States, 142; formation of swarm, 144, 
146, 148, 196, 197; ahghting, 145, 146, 202; armies, trains, etc., 
stopped, 146, 147, 208, 212 ; noise of flying swarm, 147, 149, 202; 
sound of feeding, 148, 202; fecundity, 149, 151, 201; efforts to 
exterminate wingless swarms, 152-154, 167, 170-172; cross moun- 
tains, 154, 155, 160; arrival and departure, 157, 158, 162, 208, 209; 
elevation at which they fly, 159, 160; why they migrate, 161, 162, 
167, 201, 203, 204; wingless swarms, 162, 164, 165, 205, 208; in 
Cyprus, 168-172; as food, 173-188 ; dampness fatal, 204, 205, 208, 
209, 237; length of flight, 210; superstitions, [88-196; Rocky 
Mountain species, 199-217, 231 

Long-horned grasshoppers, 81, 99, 244 

Love calls of insects, 59, 6^, 248, 249, 262 

Mantis, 35-37, 87, 88, 108, 110-123 

Martyr, Peter, quoted, 185 

Mating of grasshoppers, 59, 62-65, 69, 70 

Mattel, Count, of Cyprus, 170 

Meadow grasshoppers, 244-249 

Medicinal use of locusts, 197 

Migratory locusts. See Locusts 

Milton, John, quoted, 269 

Minnesota and migratory locusts, 206, 207, 215 

Missouri State entomologist's locust banquet, 188 

Molasses of grasshoppers, 84-86, 99 

Mole cricket, 270-272 

" More foolish than a cricket " (French proverb), 267 



INDEX 281 

Moslem veneration for mantis, 1 14 
Moulting process of grasshopper, 51-56 
Mouth fingers. See " Whiskers " 
Mouth, grasshopper's, 84, 85, 90 
" Mule-killer," or mantis, 87 

Names applied to cricket, 270 

Nervous system of insects, 71, 72, 74 

New England locust, 232-235 ; meadow grasshoppers, 245, 246 

New Guinea and the locust plague, 142 

Niebuhr, , quoted, 184 

North Dakota, extermination of locusts in, 215 

Oil-beetle, 89 

Organization of locust swarms, supposed, 196 

Orthoptera, 107-109 

Ovipositor of insects, 99-103 

Packard's " Entomology," quoted, 208 
Parasites on locusts, 239 
Pausanias, quoted, 188 
Peacock, colors of, 69, 70 
Pedigree of the locust, 196 
Phas?nidce, 125 

Philippine Islands and locust plague, 142 
Pigeons, 108 

Pliny, quoted, 155, 182, 197 
Porto Rico mole cricket, 272 
Praying mantis. See Mantis 
Prongs on grasshoppers' tibiae. See Spines 
"Prophet," III. .9.?^ Mantis 

Protective coloring, 66-68; as illustrated by mantis, 122; walking- 
stick, 126 

Queen Bess, a pet mantis : her story, 11 8-1 21 

" Rear-horse," hi. See Mantis 
Red-legged locust, 232-235 
Ring structure of grasshopper's body, 92-96 
Rocky Mountain locusts, 199-217, 231 
Running Grthoptera^ 108, no 

St. Francis, quoted, 1 13 

Scarab, image of the tumblebug, 40 

Scent glands which attract, 89, 90; compare Defensive odors and 

exudations 
Selection, the influence of color and song upon, 69, 70 
Shards, 50 

Shell of grasshopper's ^gg, how broken, 25 
Shield-back grasshoppers, 258 



282 INDEX 

Short-horned grasshoppers. Si. 99, 131 

Sight-sense of grasshopper. 73 

Skeletons, insects*. 32 

Skunk's defensive odor. 86 

Slippery surface ruins a jump. 24. 26 

Smelling-sense of insects. 76-79 

" Snake-doctor.'" See Mantis 

Snakes feed upon locusts. 241 

Snowy tree cricket, 272-274 

'•Soothsayer," in. ^'tv Mantis 

Sounds made by insects. 57, 59-63, 97. 246-254, 256. 261. 262, 264, 

265. 269. 271' 
South American mantis, 117: locust swarms. 184, 198, 199 
Southern locusts and grasshoppers, 235. 236, 259 
Southern superstitions concerning mantis, 114; mantis tights, 117; 

superstitions about crickets, 26S 
Southey, Robert, quoted, 147 
"Spectre," 125. vS'tv Walking-stick 
Spider's legs, number of, 13 

Spines on grasshoppers' tibiae. 23-26: on legs of bees, 25 
Spiracles on grasshopper's thorax, 97 
Stings, 101-104 

Stink-bug's defensive odor. 86, '$>'] 
Suckers, 28 

Sun genial to grasshoppers, 10, 11 
Superstitions concerning mantis. 111-115, 120, 121; concerning locust, 

1S8-195; concerning cricket, 267-269 

Tachixa fly. 239 

Tartar superstitions concerning locusts, 192 

Texas and the migratory locusts, 208, 213 

Theocritus's reference to mantis, 112 

Thorax of grasshopper. 17, 18, 22, 93: of butterfly, 19 

Thousand-legged worms, 18 

Toads feed upon locusts. 241 

Toilet-making of the grasshopper, 30-32, 90-92 

Transformations of animals and plants, supposed, 129, 130 

Tropical grasshopper species, 258 

Tumblebugs, 38-48, 81. 82 

Turkey feeds upon locusts, 240, 241 

United States, locusts in the: used as food, 1S6-18S; native spe- 
cies, 198-217, 231-236 

Variations in chirps, 63 
Vocal power of insects, 97 

Walking-stick, 88, 108. 124-128 
Wall car^-ings, locusts pictured in, 180 
Wasps, 103, 238 



INDEX 283 



Water bugs, 1 10 

West Indian natives use locusts as food, 185 

Wheat-field, a refuge for grasshoppers, 46, 255 

" Whiskers," or finger-like processes of grasshopper's mouth, 84, 90, 

9i»95 
White, Gilbert, of Selborne, quoted, 264 
Wing covers, grasshoppers', 48-51, 56, 60, 249 
Wings, Grasshopper, 45-51, 55-64; as basis for classification, 107; 

of walking-sticks and leaf-insects, 127-129; of katydids, 253, 254; 

of crickets, 265 
Worm origin of insects, 75, 93-95, 103 



THE END 



By Miss Morley 



THE BEE PEOPLE 

ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR 

Price $1.25 



It is the story, told in most fascinating style, of the honey bee, how it is bom, how it 
lives, how it gathers honey, and all about it, not omitting its sting. The bee is cred- 
ited with powers of reasoning, and the troubles of the queen bee in retaining her throne 
are set forth in a delightfully fairy-story-like way which will win every child that reads 
it. — The Tillies, Philadelphia. 

Probably no branch of natural history is more interesting than the bee people, and 
when told by an appreciative student is doubly so. Miss Morley carries out the human 
idea suggested in the title ; and the worker, the drone, the queen, and all the inmates 
of a hive are given a life-like personality. Many illustrations aid in telling the story, 
and many wonderful things concerning the habits of these little people are constantly 
revealed. — The Detroit News Tribune. 



THE HONEY MAKERS 



ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR 



Price 



$1.25 



Unlike Miss Morley's other v/orks, this book is intended for older readers. The first 
part of the book is devoted to the scientific exposition of the bee's structure, habits, 
etc., and it is surprising how much interest and humor the author has managed to in- 
fuse into the subject. The second part performs an original and valuable service to 
literature. To the bees more than to any other portion of the animal kingdom has 
attention been devoted by poets and thinkers seeking inspiration, and from this wealth 
of allusion and anecdote Miss Morley has culled the choicest and most striking parts. 



A 


SONG 


OF 


LIFE 


ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR AND ROBERT FORSYTH | 


Price 






. SI 25 









With simple, beautiful phrases, with pure and admiring words to describe the proc- 
ess of life, and with scores of gracefully outlined forms of plant and bird and beast 
by a helpful artist, has this song of life been sung and illustrated to delight and m- 
struct in the happiest way many a wondering child concerning the mystery of life. — 
The Chitrchinan, Nexv York. 

The plan of the work is novel, and the narrative is accurate and interesting to an un- 
usual degree. Few writers on life's history give so much of it in a space so- limited. 
— TJie Nation. New York 



A. C. McCLURG & CO.. Publishers 



By Miss Morley 



LIFE AND 

ILLUSTRATED BY THE 

Price 


LOVE 

AUTHOR 

%\ 0^ 


^ 1 



Margaret Warner Morley has written in " Life and Love " a book which should be 
placed in the hands of every young man and woman. It is a fearless yet clean- 
minded study of the development of life and the relations thereof from the proto- 
plasm to mankind. The work is logical, instructive, impressive. It should result 
in the innocence of knowledge, which is better than the innocence of ignorance. 
It is a pleasure to see a woman handling so delicate a topic so well. Miss Morley 
deserves thanks for doing it so impeccably. Even a prude can find nothing to carp 
at in the valuable little volume. — Boston Journal. 

It is an agreeable and useful little volume, explanatory of the mysteries of plant and 
animal life, — such a book as parents will do well to place in the hands of thoughtful, 
or, better still, of thoughtless children. — Philadelphia Press. 



LITTLE MITCHELL 

THE STORY OF A MOUNTAIN SQUIRREL 

ILLUSTRATED BY BRUCE HORSFALL 

Price $1.25 



Miss Morley's own words give the best idea of this most engaging little book : 
"Baby Mitchell was an August squirrel. That is, he was born in the month of 
August. His pretty gray mother found a nice hole, high up in the crotch of a tall 
chestnut tree, for her babies' nest ; and I know that she lined it with soft fur plucked 
from her own loving little breast, — for that is the way the squirrel mothers do. 
" This chestnut tree grew on the side of a steep mountain, — none other than Mount 
Mitchell, the highest mountain peak in all the eastern half of the United States. It 
is in North Carolina, where there are a great many beautiful mountains, but none of 
them more beautiful than Mount Mitchell, with the great forest trees on its slopes." 



The RENEWAL of LIFE 

ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR 

Pri^e $1.25 



The book is not meant to be either exhaustive or arbitrary. It is written with the 
single desire of helping the mother who may be groping her way in this matter, its aim 
being to indicate methods of procedure, . . . and to indicate sources of information. 
" The Renewal of Life " is a book that should be in the hands of every mother and 
teacher of children. . . . Miss Morley aims to interest the child in plant development 
and fertilization, and in the life and transformation of the animal kingdom, and to 
make it reason by analogy. The thanks of thinking parents are due to Miss Morley. 
— Chicago Evening Post. 

A, C. McCLURG & CO., Publishers 



?MY 8 1907 



imiinniiiiiiiiiiimiinnimiiiiiiimiiiiiiniiiiiiininiinninnininiiiinniiinnnnv^ 




005 453 551 A 



M > 
!! 




